


Ideal Illusion

by aimlesscalamity



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Blow Jobs, Bottom Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Bottom GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), But we'll get there, Fluff, I have an idea, Kissing, M/M, Neck Kissing, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Phone Sex, Pining, Polyamory, SHUSH, Self-Hatred, Smut, Tags Are Hard, Threesome - M/M/M, Top Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Top GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Top Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Unrequited Crush, Unrequited Lust, Webcam/Video Chat Sex, also, as of now this hasnt happened yet, but it will be here someday, guys idk what im doing, im very lost people, look idk where this is going, that's not true, you saw nothing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:53:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 28,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27782551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aimlesscalamity/pseuds/aimlesscalamity
Summary: It started out as a good laugh, nothing more.The stories Dream would read with Sapnap and George were so farfetched, it was truly hysterical.But some of them were ok, some of them were almost genuine, and some of them left Dream feeling lost between reality and fiction.The line between existence and illusion becomes blurred; when it comes to Sapnap and George, Dream isn't sure where his fictional desires end and his authentic feelings begin.(Basically Dream likes the fanfiction about him and his friends too much, complications ensue)
Relationships: Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound/Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), GeorgeNotFound/Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 169
Kudos: 1476





	1. it wasn't fine

**Author's Note:**

> Guys this is a first for me, I have no idea what I'm doing. Here's hoping it's not complete dogshit :)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream starts showing an interest in the stories written about himself and his friends. It's just reading though, nothing to worry about.

It was a slow process, Dream had been reading through random online stories about the three of them with George and Sapnap for months. Most of it was crudely written and far-fetched but it was almost always a good laugh, when the trio were bored and too worn out to invest any energy in their usual gaming shenanigans they would settle for this relaxed form of entertainment instead.

Usually it was late in the evening, when Sapnap and Dream couldn't find the urge to do anything productive and George who was hours ahead couldn't find it in himself to fall asleep until the early hours.  
One of them would go browsing and if they found anything worthwhile they'd read through it on call together, each taking turns reading out loud for the other two to listen to.  
Sometimes they'd choose someone to be the narrator and they'd read their own lines, falling into fits of laughter at the absurdity of the things their personas said in these stories. Not being able to help themselves, they'd make teasing jabs at each other by quoting the stories and jokingly calling each other by the appointed pet names in the sultry tones they had been reading about in the most mocking manner possible, unavoidable laughter always followed suit.

The more raunchy content was always the safest bet for good entertainment. It had been strange the first few times but they'd become so used to it that nothing truly shocked them anymore, although some of the more absurd tropes always had them wheezing from surprise for several minutes before they were able to continue with their reading.  
All had been well, none of them had questioned their group activities, all defining it as a bit of fun. For Dream however things started to shift when they stumbled upon a story that was particularly well written, it wasn't as implausible as some of the stuff they'd read before, it was definitely still unthinkable but the way their personas were written was almost convincing… Upon deciding that that was enough for one night, the trio had called it quits and ended their call, it was dangerously close to sunrise in the UK and George still had some semblance of a sleep schedule to maintain.

Dream however hadn't gone to sleep, instead he had clicked back onto his web browser and continued reading. He was hesitant without the presence of the other two to supply his reading with commentary that poked fun, but his ever growing interest had been piqued and curiosity got the better of him.  
Something about the way this counterfeit George had whispered those tempting words made him wonder if the Brit truly would lean over him that way, press into him as the words said he would. The idea of his breath fanning against Dream's neck, the hushed tone and suggestive words continued to rattle around in his head for hours after he'd first read them.  
The same could be said for the way that the fictional Sapnap had held him, his rough hands grasping tightly at his hips as his own rocked against them, supposedly eliciting noises that pleaded for more.

The first night Dream had gone back to the stories he had hastily shut off his phone, feeling almost ashamed. A few days later he had given himself time to rationalise and he opened the tab on his browser once more, starting from the beginning and reading over the same paragraph again and again, and then some more.  
The story hadn't been long, in a very short amount of time he had read it, even with all the time he had spent lingering on specific segments that sparked a thought within him. Over time he became accustomed to reading without Sapnap and George, when he found the right story it felt like they were there with him anyway. He began reading more often, he continued to read the more ridiculous ones with the other two but he spent more and more time on his own, completely absorbed in these written scenes he'd play out with his best friends.

There were nights when he felt guilty, when he felt weirded out by his actions but by morning he had always reasoned with himself; he never did anything, it was just reading.  
It was a slow process.

Somehow the boat hadn't been rocked all that much, for Sapnap and George at least nothing had changed. Dream hadn't mentioned anything to either of them. Deep down he knew it was perhaps a little strange that he had taken such a liking to the feeling elicited by these explicit stories written about him and his closest friends. But any thoughts or feelings of guilt were suppressed as soon as they made an appearance, as long he didn't act on anything everything would be fine. Right?

At some point though something had to come along, something had to cause a ruckus, and something did.  
It was early in the evening when the notification popped up on his phone, everything always happened in the evening. Dream was sitting at his desk editing a video he'd had in the works for awhile that he hadn't come around to sorting out, up until then. His blinds were closed to prevent the piercing evening sun from blinding him but slithers of lights still forced their way into his room, casting illuminated lines across his desk where his phone had started buzzing away.  
He tore his eyes away from his monitor long enough to see that it was a series of snapchat notifications from George to their DreamTeam group chat. With a smile he took yet another break from editing and reached for his phone, unlocking the screen and opening the messages.

Gogy:  
GUYS  
I need help

Dream grinned as he typed back a quick response offering his aid, in the meantime Sapnap had made an appearance as well, it wasn't uncommon for the Brit to demand help from them. This was never an issue, Dream was always happy to help.  
George went on to explain that he'd been texting a girl from the UK, this wasn't a surprise to Dream, George had mentioned her before but he'd never thought much more of it.

Gogy:  
She sent me a pic  
What do I send back??

Sap:  
POG

George proceeded to bombard them with panicked messages, much to Dreams entertainment.

Dre:  
Send her a pic George  
It's not hard

Sap:  
maybe thats his problem

Gogy:  
STFU sapnap  
What do I send her tho??

Sap:  
u want me to show u what to send?

Gogy:  
Please

Sap has sent a snap

Dream inhaled sharply as he opened the snap, he mostly expected something that would mock George, instead Dream's eyes landed on a genuine photo of Sapnap. He shouldn't have been surprised. Sapnap was standing in front of a wall mirror with his phone held up to his right, the smirk that was painted across his face felt like it was all too knowing. His other hand was holding up his shirt near his chest, revealing the trail of hair that lead from his naval to where his boxers were slung low on his hips. It was nothing horribly over the top but the image in itself of Sapnap staring so deliberately at the camera was causing images to fly around in Dream's head, as he swiped the image off his screen after having stared at it for too long he let out a sigh of relief, his stomach was in knots. This felt scarily similar to something he had read only a few days ago and the memories of what had followed suit were still strong in his mind.

Mindlessly he brought his thumb up to his lips so could chew on it nervously. A rousing feeling was creeping through him and just as it was beginning to pass, forcing the image of Sapnap out of his head, a snap from George appeared in the group as well. This time he was prepared and all the more hesitant, but he had to see.  
Once again Dream stopped breathing. The text across the image said "how's this?".  
Dream had seen George biting his lip before, it was nothing new, the stans made sure of that. But the blush that covered his face along with the bashful look was a complete contradiction to the way his hand was held confidently at the edge of his pants, thumb sneaking just under the edge and dragging the fabric down just that little bit lower.

Before any more thoughts could cross his mind, Dream let out a small high-pitched noise. Surprising himself at his own reaction he hastily closed the snap, although not before glancing back at George's flushed face that seemed to be seeing right through him, seeing through his phone screen and into Dreams mind where all these disgusting thoughts of his friends were plaguing him.  
Something was wrong with him, he shouldn't be thinking like this. These were his friends, and they were helping each other out, this was perfectly normal and friendly, what on earth was he thinking.

He shut off his phone without waiting to see what the other two were going to say next. George didn't need his help with this, Sapnap was handling it just fine, Sapnap was always fine. He cursed himself once more. He'd been reading too much, decidedly.  
That was it, he wasn't going to read anymore, he shouldn't have been reading these stories on his own anyway. It was fine when it was the three of them because it was all just a bit of fun! A good laugh! Whatever possessed him to read such graphic things about himself and his friends, his Best friends, was going too far now. He had to put an end to it before it took any more of a toll on his real life interactions.  
That's it, this is what he needs to do to get rid of these misplaced thoughts. Yes, this is fine.

Except it wasn't fine.


	2. he didn't want to know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wouldn't it be nice if some things could just stay hidden.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things get a little more explicit in this chapterrr.  
> Update, still have no idea what I'm doing!

Dreams absence hadn't been noted as he later remarked, when he turned on his phone again nothing was amiss, a few messages from his friends inviting him to play on the server but ultimately everything was fine.  
A few days later Dream had found himself in another predicament, Sapnap had messaged their group in the middle of the night with complaints of boredom. George had messaged back immediately, not being able to sleep and that was how they found each other on another late night call, browsing the preferred website for something to read and entertain them in the unproductive hours. Dream was hunched at his desk scrolling nervously and glancing at all the familiar titles when Sapnap joyfully announced a suitable find.

He clicked on the link sent to their discord group chat and much to his shame Dream was very familiar with this story. He had read it just last night.  
The recent memory was one that was weighing on him a little, or a lot. The story was about him and Sapnap, he'd like to say that he stumbled across it accidentally but he hadn't, he'd gone looking purposefully. Dream had discovered quite quickly that tags were easy to navigate and when he finally closed his browser at the end of the night he was always left feeling satisfied with what he'd discovered, except when he wasn't.  
The tale in question had really got to him last night, by the end of it he was left flushed and a little breathless, and very definitely refusing to acknowledge the neglected bulge in his sweats. It had happened to him a few times now, even if he liked to pretend it didn't. Sometimes the words just got to him a little too much; the wicked smile George would throw at him through the screen causing a gentle stirring in his lower region that he'd leave unattended.  
Most nights he'd awkwardly crawl under his covers and stare at the ceiling until he finally wished his arousal away.

Last night however he'd given in, he'd been haunted by those snapchat photos for days, his mind just wouldn't let him banish the images from his memory. Feeling weak he'd gone back to a paragraph that he'd liked a little too much; Sapnap had been staring down at him with a sly smirk, the same smirk he'd seen in that momentous photo. Dream had let out a sigh of frustration, this time it just wasn't going away. With a defeated groan he'd pulled his palms away from the place where they pressed against his eyes, and lightly rested them on his hips istead.  
He'd left them there for some time, gently grazing the skin under his t-shirt, rubbing small circles over his hipbone before tentatively reaching under his boxers and grasping at his member. He whined quietly at the touch, he hadn't allowed himself to do this for too long.  
He closed his eyes as he began gently fisting at his swollen prick, the precum that had leaked from the tip supplying him with just enough slick. He imagined Sapnap leaning over him with a cunning glint in his eye, he tugged at his member just that little bit harder and imagined that instead of his hand it was George's. George who would know exactly how to flick his wrist in the perfect way all while blushing meekly at the murmurs of praise Sapnap and Dream would whisper to him.  
At the thought of George gingerly leaning down to lick at the tip, spunk escaped through his fingers and dribbled down his hand, with a silent cry Dream came into his fist.

He didn't know how long he stayed like that, just lying there covered in his own grossness. It was too late to shower so he settled for moping himself up with tissues instead, as he did so he began to feel guilty. Dream couldn't believe he'd just done that, he'd just jerked off to his friends, worse than that he'd fantasized about them.  
He didn't sleep much that night, and when he did he woke up feeling just as disgusting as he had when he'd gone to sleep.

Thinking back on last night's activities, this must've been karma.

"Sapnap shoved Dream onto the edge of the bed, standing above him and caressing his cheek, tilting his chin up to look him in the eye." George narrated, wheezing at Sapnaps commentary in the background.

This was most definitely karma.

Dream was zoning out, he knew he was. He'd reasoned with himself that it would be over with soon, all he had to do was stay detached and not let his imagination run away from him. As long as he didn't wind himself up it would be fine.

"You gonna beg for me Dream?" Sapnap snorted.

Dream answered on autopilot, barely paying any attention and reciting the line from memory. "Please Sapdaddy, I need it. I need to feel your seed inside me…"  
Granted he felt his lines were a little dramatic in this, but that wasn't what mattered.

A brief silence followed Dream's words before George and Sapnap started cackling, the call being filled with breathy laughs. "Dream!" George wheezed. "Stop messing around, that's not the line!"

Dream flushed at the realization. Fuck, that was wrong, that was really really wrong. He should've been paying more attention.  
He'd read this story just last night, he remembered it so clearly, he had to be more careful. He covered it up quickly with a bright laugh and uttered an apology before he cleared his throat to read what actually came next. "Not a chance shitnap." 

The others laughed and continued on, George reading the narrative paragraphs with an increasing number of breaks to allow for fits of laughter at the fictional dynamic between the texan and the blond. Dream said nothing, he listened intently with the occasional chuckle to avoid suspicion but he was panicking. The cogs were turning in his head, he knows that line is correct, it was definitely in the story somewhere. But if it wasn't then that means it was going to come up later, and then they'd realise. They'd know what that meant. They'd realise he already knew the story. Shit.

Dream read ahead, desperately trying to find that one line. He needed to know how much time he had, not long. George called him out a few times because he wasn't keeping up, not paying enough attention and not reading his lines when he was supposed to. If only they knew how much attention he was paying.

"I'm actually a bit bored of this one." He chipped in suddenly. He cursed himself at the strained tone to his voice. "Maybe we should read another?" He suggested, his voice wobbling less. He knew it sounded suspicious, but he had to try something to get them to stop reading here, he could brush it off later.

"What? Why?"

"Yeah I wanna hear you begging me Dream…" Sapnap teased, his tone light and mocking as he dragged out the sound of his name with a fond lilt. 

This wasn't good. "Come on it's almost finished." This was defeat.

"Ok…"

And so they continued. Dream listened with dread as George continued reading, he could hear the lewd narration but he wasn't really listening. Why would he when he could still remember what the words said; how they described the way Sapnap was bent over him, his chest pressed to his back as the raven mouthed at the back of his neck, thrusting into him at a torturously slow pace. The way his fictional self had cried out, desperate for more but refusing to give the younger man the satisfaction of begging. The image of the scene was still vivid, only heightened by the photo Sapnap had sent not that long ago, and the same twisting he'd felt creep through his body had made another appearance. He shoved down the feeling he dared not define as desire.

His breathing came to a halt as that one line appeared on his screen, and before not too long Sapnap was voicing the line just before it.

"I'll tell you again Dream, all you have to do is ask." 

George narrated. "Sapnap leant back, dragging Dream along with him. He tightened his grip in the freckled blond's hair as he used it to hold him up against him in his lap, still thrusting gently, barely teasing at his prostate."

Sapnap was enjoying this too much, he read his lines with a mocking sultry tone that had George snickering. "Beg for me Dream."

There was a silence, a long torturous silence as the three of them read the following line and Dream let it sit there. He couldn't see either of their faces but he could perfectly imagine the recognition flashing across their features.

"Dream wh-"

With a trembling breath Dream cut him off. "Please Sapdaddy, I need it. I need to feel your seed inside me…" He uttered that line for the second time, this time a greater meaning behind it. He could explain this, he could explain it away so easily. If he could just speak.

"Wait, Dream?" George's confused laugh echoed through his headset. Sapnap was of course snickering manically in the background. "You've read this before?"

They must think he's so weird, this is wrong, they know it's wrong. He has to say something. He'd been reading with Wilbur, no why would he be reading with Wilbur. These stories were just too predictable, he'd guessed. No he'd been spot on, they wouldn't believe that. He'd been looking for good content for them to read, that would work. He just had to speak.

"Dream…" George drawled. He'd been silent for too long, it was getting weirder.

"Leave him be Gogy." Sapnap announced between his uncontrollable fits of laughter. "He obviously gets off on it don't you Dream?" He wheezed.

Dream paled, was that what this was? It was, wasn't it. He was absolutely getting off on it. Sapnap was laughing at him, George was laughing too quietly, he was nervous, he must be disgusted with him. He had to say something, this had to end right now, he couldn't bear this agonising moment going on any longer.

"Of course not…" He croaked out, his voice was too quiet and on top of that it broke at the end. Even Dream didn't believe himself, there was no way the other two would be convinced by that. He was a complete pervert.

"Dre-" George's voice was cut off, just as Sapnaps quiet chuckles had gone silent, the brokenness of Dreams tone finally meeting his ears. Dream was sitting at his desk, hands clenched too tightly, he released his grip on his mouse and let his hands sit gently in front of him on his desk where they trembled uncontrollably.  
He fucked that up royally.  
He stared at his monitor where he could see the discord vc he'd just left, where Sapnap and George were still on call, they were probably talking about him and how gross he was for getting off on them like that. George was already messaging him to know what happened.  
His headset was too tight on his head, it was constricting him. He was too warm, the room was too hot and it was too dark in here. It felt stuffy and the air was heavy, oxygen was escaping him and he felt like he was choking on it. Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes and at that realisation he ripped the headset from his ears, the violent motion causing his ears to ring as he threw the damned thing onto his keyboard, shoving his chair away from the desk as far as it could go with his force.

The chair spun a little in the center of the unlit room, he gripped at the armrest with one hand while the other pulled at his hair harshly, he squeezed his eyes tight and inhaled sharply. Even though his eyes were closed and he couldn't see anything but the red splotches that danced across his eyelids, he could feel the blackness swirling around him. It was late, there were no rays of sunshine escaping through the cracks in his blinds. No warmth radiating from outside letting him know that all was bright. His room was barely illuminated by the hazy blue from his monitor.  
He opened his eyes and stared at it, he could see notification after notification popping up on his screen. He didn't want to know.  
Feebly he stood from his chairs and inched towards his PC, they were all messages from George and Sapnap, of course. He didn't want to know. Dejectedly he shut off the computer without closing any tabs.

It was quiet in the house, it was late, his family were all asleep. When the low whirring from his computer finally stopped, the only thing he could hear was his laboured breathing and the blood rushing through his ears.  
He should've said something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! :)  
> Like I said for the first chapter, any feedback is amazing, god knows I need all the help I can get


	3. a moment of weakness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's some dream x sapnap content for this chapter, it's a little longer this one too
> 
> More to come :)

Dream could usually get away with radio silence for a few days at most. After that twitter would start acting up, and the donations his friends would receive on twitch would start asking questions.  
This was never really an issue; his friends always backed him up and within a few days he was back online as if nothing had happened.  
This time however, Dream did not have that luxury. The careful balance that was Dream's absence relied heavily on Sapnap and George, when Dream was gone they were who the fanbase turned to. Things would be fine for a few days, after a week things would start getting a bit hectic; after this evening's stunt there was no guarantee that Sapnap and George would step in for him, the more irrational side of Dreams mind was insistent on the fact that they wouldn't be associating with him anymore.  
People would take notice of the lack of Dream Team content quickly, assumptions would be made about arguments between the trio and it would all go to shit. The business side of things that was strongly impacted by his online presence would be damaged, that was something else to take into account, in a couple weeks everything that mattered to Dream could be decimated, whether it be personal or professional relations.

He'd been staring at his ceiling fan for too long. And he'd started rationalising to the point that only irrational thoughts were being produced.  
One thing that was certain was that he absolutely had to talk to George and Sapnap, he had to explain himself and the longer he left it the worse it could be. No, disappearing wasn't an option. Dream thought for sure that he'd probably weirded the pair of them out, he couldn't bear the thought of what they must be thinking of him.

All he had to do was explain why he'd been so spaced out, a family issue would do the trick. And his knowledge of the story; casual browsing, it was all perfectly simple.  
He was still staring up at his ceiling fan, he hadn't moved from his bed since he first laid down after his most memorable and ruiness feat from earlier. The 5 lazily rotating blades stared down at him, the faint feeling of air being wafted down and enveloping him was comforting, it helped ease him. It was a silly thing really but Dream liked his ceiling fan, the unrelenting rotation was fascinating in a way only a tired and sleep deprived person could appreciate. Something about the way the blades never failed to sustain their continuous whirling was just pleasant, usually watching the ceiling fan would have lulled Dream to sleep hours ago. The fan hadn't succeeded tonight, but instead it provided some solace to him, some things are just so perfectly consistent.

He should turn on his phone now.  
Procrastinating was doing him no good, he'd barely moved an inch in hours and yet somehow he was well on his way to driving himself insane. Online presence and ceilings fans, he truly was sifting through every possible thought in his head at this point.  
It was already 6am. Dream stared at his Lockscreen for a few seconds longer as he waited for his eyes to properly adjust and see the figures clearly. He'd been staring into the darkness of his room for hours, the harsh blue light was a strain to his tired eyes, it was 6am, how did he get to this point. Before he could continue on with that thought his phone exploded with notifications. He jumped in surprise at the sudden onslaught of messages, and as he'd expected most of them were from George.

His grip on his phone tightened, and the longer he stared at the seemingly never-ending list of notifications, the more adamant he became that he couldn't do this, not right now.  
His shaking had ceased hours ago but now it had been renewed with just as much vigor as before. He still hadn't sorted through everything in his head yet, he didn't even know what needed to be resolved, there was just too much.  
He'd thought that maybe he was ready to tackle it but he most definitely wasn't.

He abandoned his phone, again.  
This was starting to become a habit, this time however he was able to fall back on his family. His mom had been awake and was wandering around the kitchen aimlessly, sleep had been avoiding her as well and like her son, she'd given in and just gotten up.

By the time Dream returned to his room, not being able to handle his family for any longer, it was late in the evening. However he wasn't able to muster up the courage to turn his phone on again until 3am.

Gogy :  
Dream  
Where did you go?  
You're not answering sap and I on disc  
You ok??  
Can we talk about what happened?  
idk when you'll get this cause I think you turned your phone off  
Just message me when you see this ok

Dream sighed as he scanned over the messages, there were a lot more texts than the ones his eyes had focused on. It seemed that George had been texting him every few hours in an attempt to get his attention, the result was dozens of messages. George wanted to talk to him, that was something at least.

Dre:  
Hey  
Sorry for being weird and leaving

He really didn't want to start having this conversation but he had to start somewhere, George was the easiest to tackle; they'd had fallings out before but they'd always bounced back quickly. He could only hope that that was the case now. He went to throw his phone aside but just as he did so he noticed George start typing. It was 3am, George wasn't usually awake at this time, nevermind answering him. Not when it was 8am in the UK.

Gogy:  
Hey!!  
It's ok shit happens  
I'm really really sorry Dream  
I told sap off after you left

Dream frowned, this wasn't what he expected.

Dre:  
Wait why?  
What did sapnap do  
Also why are you up?  
Isn't it like 8am over there

Gogy:  
Couldn't sleep  
He shouldn't have laughed at you

Dre:  
Don't see why  
Better than the alternative

Gogy :  
You know you could have told me you liked him  
I would have been cool with it

Oh. Oh this was definitely not what he expected. Realisation dawned on him, they'd interpreted his weird behaviour as him having a crush on Sapnap. He glanced up at his monitor, his PC had just booted up and it had automatically opened discord along with some tabs he hadn't closed. He could see the notifications from both Sapnap and George staring back at him.

Dre:  
How did you come to that conclusion

Gogy :  
Why else would you be reading dream x sapnap fanfiction

Dre:  
Uhh  
I was browsing  
For things for us to read

Gogy:  
It's ok dream

This was ridiculous. George should be disgusted by him, he was with himself, why couldn't George see that. How was it possible that he wasn't seeing right through him.

Gogy:  
You know I care right?

Dre:  
Yeah love you too

He didn't deserve this. Maybe it was just worth accepting that this was how things were, even if the idea of feelings hadn't even occurred to him. For the past few weeks he'd just been so completely wrapped up in the excitement of these ideas.  
But this was what George and Sapnap had decided, this was the idea that they came to accept. And George was ok with it, George was supportive; at least there was that. But Sapnap… It was perfectly clear that Dream had been reading erotic fiction about him; that's why George was fine with it, because it wasn't him. What is Sapnap thinking of him right now?

Dre:  
What about sap  
He must be so grossed out

Gogy:  
Idiot  
Of course he isn't  
Hes worried he hurt you

Dre:  
Oh

Gogy:  
Text him  
You ok?

Dre:  
Yeah im fine  
Go sleep george

Gogy:  
Yeah I will, I'll call you later so we can talk about how hot you think Sapnap is

Dre:  
GEORGE

Gogy:  
lol

Dream groaned, this was not ideal. It was better than the alternative but even so. He grabbed his headset from the place on his keyboard where he'd thrown it down over 24 hours ago. Leaning back in his chair he felt less tense than the last time he'd been sat in this position.

It was incredibly late, he hadn't opened his blinds all day because he'd been avoiding his room so when he arrived back he'd opened them just for the sake of it.  
It was dark outside so there really wasn't any point to it but he was comforted by the small amount of light that shone into his room, the pale moonlight stretching across his floor and towards his bed, creating shadows behind him as he twirled around aimlessly in his chair.  
Sapnap was online, the little green dot under his discord profile let him know that for some reason the texan was awake in the early hours as well. Discord showed that he was playing Minecraft, there was a surprise.

He scanned through the messages from Sapnap. There weren't as many as George had sent, thankfully, but the general message was much the same; are you alright? Call me.

Dream thought about it for a few moments, he let out a heavy sigh and tapped his finger against his mouse nervously a few times. He was tired, he was really really tired. But he couldn't put this off for any longer, he'd been telling himself that since he initially abandoned their call yesterday. George had been reassuring, he always was, he was brilliant in so many ways. Perhaps it would've been easier if it had been George he'd been caught reading about.

Let's get this over with.  
Dream inhaled sharply just before he pressed the call button, it rang a few times before the call was answered. "Sapnap?"  
He called out tentatively.

"Dream! Hey…!" Sapnap breathed out hastily. "I'm so sorry."

Dream frowned. "Yeah George said, I still don't really get why…"

"I was a dick, I didn't realise what any of it meant until George shouted at me when you left."

Dream couldn't help but laugh at that. "He shouted at you?"

"Yeah he did." Sapnap chuckled back. "He was right though, I'm sorry it was really shitty."

This was strange, it felt like everything had been turned on its head. He should be the one apologising, not Sapnap.

"So… Can we talk about that…?" The nervousness in Sapnaps tone was only feeding into Dream's anxiety over the situation, he frowned again.

"About what?"

A small amused breath sounded in his headset before Sapnap spoke again. "About how you feel about me."

Dream inhaled sharply. "Sapnap I-" Is this really what it had come to? They both believed that he had feelings for Sapnap. He didn't though, that was what was so awful about it all. He almost wished he did.

"Sorry sorry that was too blunt." Sapnap rushed out. "I just- We should talk about this?" 

He smiled at Sapnaps softness, he sounded so unsure which was a complete contradiction to his usually assertive state. As happy as Dream was that neither of his friends had been upset with him, or assumed the worst as he expected they would, he somehow felt worse that they were being so kind to him. They had it so wrong.

"You were reading about me…?"

Dream felt a blush creep across his features at the question, this was just painful. "Yeah…" Sapnap seemed ok. He was nervous, that much was obvious, but maybe it would be easier for the both of them if he just stayed as close to the truth as was acceptable.

He could hear Sapnap breathing through his headset, a shiver ran down his spine, if he ignored everything else around him and really concentrated on the quiet sound, it almost felt like Sapnap was standing right beside him.

"What was it you liked about it?"

"Sapnap…" He couldn't find it in himself to say anything else.

"I- Sorry I know, it's just…" He paused, Dream could hear him shifting around. "After you left I started thinking about it. And I got curious, so I… you know."

"I really don't."

"I went and read that story again." He rushed out. "You know the one we were reading with George, about you and me."

Dream inhaled sharply. "What? Y- What are you trying to say here Sapnap?"

"I… I thought about it. I mean it was pretty hot wasn't it?"

All the air had been sucked out of his lungs and Dream started sputtering violently. What the hell was happening right now. He stood up hastily and walked around his desk towards his window that he yanked open.

"Dream? Dream you ok?" He could hear Sapnap calling out to him from his headset that now rested around his neck. He gripped at the window ledge, eyes squeezed tight as he felt the warm breeze waft over his tensed features and brush through his hair.  
He coughed and pulled his mic closer towards him.

"Y-yeah I'm here…"

There was another silence as neither of them said anything.

"I was thinking about it…" Sapnap muttered, his voice sounded breathy and a little dazed. "I've been thinking a lot since you haven't said anything since yesterday."

Dream coughed a little, feeling awkward. "I know, I'm sorry I just needed to get my head straight."

"Not too straight I hope if that's the kind of thing you get off to." 

"Sapnap…"

Sapnap laughed at that, genuine and light. "Yeah yeah…" Another short silence followed and Dream could hear the creak of Sapnaps chair as he shifted again. "I liked it though…"

Dream sat back down in his chair, leaning forward and crossing his arms on his desk tentatively. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. I mean I'm the only one who's seen your face right? And I just imagined what it would be like to do those things to you… the noises and the- the faces you'd make…" Sapnap breathed out.

Dream closed his eyes as he listened to the Texans quiet words. He felt a familiar stirring and he gulped harshly as he felt heat rush to his groin. "What… what things?"

"Well I'd… kissing you for a start, I'd hold you still by grabbing at your hair, your neck… Maybe even leave a few bruises."

A small gasp escaped his lips at the sound of that same sly tone he'd only ever imagined. "Would you bite?"

A quiet chuckle echoed through his ears at the suggestion. "Yeah… I'd bite, I'd mark you up all nice and pretty Dream.

Dream moaned at the thought, his hand twitching towards his growing arousal, his hand slid under the waistband of his sweats and he rested his hand over his bulge, cupping it and squeezing gently. He hissed quietly but he was sure Sapnap could hear the change in his breathing. A silence followed, Sapnaps hushed gasps the only sound in the silence along with Dreams own small whimper.

"Dream…?

"Yeah?"

"If I turn on my webcam will you turn on yours?"

He wanted to see him, he wanted to see Sapnap as he said more of those things, and he wanted Sapnap to see him. "Y-yes."

Sapnap shifted again quickly turning on his webcam and positioning it on himself with his lap in sight. Dreams eyes widened at the sight and a gentle laugh erupted from his lips.

"You're already that hard?" Dream asked, his webcam finally positioned directly at him, just for Sapnap.  
"Aren't you?" 

He smiled back at the alluring grin that graced the younger man's features.

"You gonna let me see you Dreamie?"

"Only if you keep talking."

Sapnap was leaning forward in his chair staring intently at his screen, at Dream. He grinned happily as he finally had Dream centered on his screen, he had already released his dick from the confines of his boxers and he was tugging at his length leisurely. Dreams eyes glazed over at the sight, remembering the photo from a few days ago his eyes danced over the trail of hair that nestled neatly around Sapnaps throbbing prick.  
A gentle dusting of red was painted across the noirettes cheeks, not as vibrant as the flush that covered the tan but freckled skin of Dreams own face, but even so it was ever present.  
He was wearing a simple crappy t-shirt that he obviously slept in. Dreams gaze crossed over the bare thighs of the noirette on the screen in front of him, he felt a throb at the thought of the bruises he'd leave in the soft skin because of how tightly he'd grip them. He'd love to have those thighs pressed against him.

"I think you should do as you're told Dreamie." Sapnap cut in with a sly smirk.

"Oh?"

"Remove your shirt."

Dream did as he was told, smiling subtly at how predictable Sapnap was. It was warm in his room and his chest had grown flushed as well, the warmth having travelled down his neck and enveloping him whole. He slipped his hand out from underneath his briefs and pulled his shirt up and over his head, watching intently as Sapnaps eyes darted all over the screen in front of him.

"God Dream…" Sapnap murmered. "Let me see you."

Dream obliged again, a quiet moan escaping him as he pulled himself out of his sweatpants, squeezing his fingers around his member and teasing at the tip with his thumb. He smiled in satisfaction at the contented groan he elicited from Sapnap.

He began to stroke himself steadily, eyes fixated on Sapnap who stared back at him with just as much attentiveness.

"I can't believe this is happening…" Dream blurted.

"I can't believe-" He moaned. "We waited this long."

Sapnap shifted in his chair again, bringing his other hand up to pull his t-shirt away from his leaking mess. Dream stared mesmerized at the way he held the shirt up, fingers splayed across his chest in the same way he'd seen in that first photo.

"I need to thank George for shouting some sense into me…"

At that Dream groaned. George… "Me too…"

Sapnap whimpered. "God Dream… The thought of you reading those things. I hope you got off on it good."

Dream nodded. "I-I did."

"You have no idea what that does to me…"

Dream snorted "I have a pretty good idea." He thrust into his hand enthusiastically. He was glad he'd removed his shirt, the breeze coming through his window wasn't enough to put a stop to his sweating, he could feel the layer of moisture accumulating all over him, he must look such a mess.  
Sapnap grunted from behind the screen, if Dream thought he was disheveled then the texan truly was a glorious sight. His hair was mussed up and pushed out of his face, revealing his dark eyes that glinted with delight.  
The ceiling fan was whirring and still casting shadows around the room, the light from the moon shining through the open window landed on it on each rotation.  
Everything felt right, this was unwavering, this was safe.

"A-Ah Sapnap." Dream bit out between the heavy gasps of air. "Fuuuck… I'm gonna cum."

"Stop touching yourself."

Dreams hands stilled suddenly, his fist squeezing at the base of his cock. His eyes widened in alarm at Sapnaps words and the toothy grin he was shooting Dreams way. "You're not going to cum until I tell you to."

"Sapnap no c'mon." He whined. "That's not fair." 

Sapnap continued fisting himself, his mouth quirked upward as he panted, lips releasing a hoarse whimper at the sight of Dreams desperation that was drawn on his face so distinctly.  
His prick was leaking precum, Dream could see it so clearly despite the pixelated screen between them, what he'd do to be on his knees tending to that cock.

"You gonna beg for me Dream?" Sapnaps eyes glinted mischievously, Dream cursed him, he knew exactly what he was doing.

"Sapnap please!" He groaned, he gripped his erection that little bit tighter, desperate for any friction but too enticed by Sapnaps words to do anything but what he asked of him.

"Call me Sapdaddy."

Despite his frustration, Dream wheezed with laughter. "I am Not calling you that!" He cried out between his laughs.

Sapnap pouted but he couldn't help but grin back. "You're no fun!" He whined.

"Cmon Sap I'm so close. Please…"

The Texan stared at him silently for a few painfully long moments, drinking in the image of Dream in his disheveled state. The webcam revealed Dream in all his wrecked glory for Sapnaps eyes and his eyes alone.  
The hand around his member was perfectly still, encasing his throbbing arousal in a cage awaiting Sapnaps signal. The other was grasping at his bare thigh, desperately trembling at the tension throughout his body as he put off the inevitable orgasm he was hopelessly in need of.

"Sap I'll do anything, anything you ask." he bit out, eyes clenched shut.

That was an idea. "Next time I see you we'll do this again, but with you-" A sudden cry left his lips as he twisted his wrist in just the perfect way. "W-with you on your knees in front of me."

Dream whined at the idea, he liked that, he liked that a whole lot. "You g-gonna fuck my mouth with your dick Sap?" He started stroking himself steadily and at the sound of Sapnaps moans of approval he angled his hand just so and began abusing his prick with a determined touch.

"You best believe it, I'm gonna fuck your throat so hard you won't be able to breath."

Dream moaned, thrusting up into his fist as he came. He hunched over his desk, pressing his face into his arm as he stroked himself to completion.

"Dream, Dream look up for me." 

After a few seconds Dream did as he was told, leaning his elbow on the desk and pushing his hair out of his face to look up at his monitor with a lazy smile. 

"Gooood… you're so perfect."

A tired chuckle erupted from the blonds lips. "You gonna cum for me Sapitus Napitus?" At that Sapnap groaned, spunk spilling from his tip, fisting his prick firmly as he climaxed at the image on his monitor.

A silence of sorts followed, Sapnaps heavy breathing echoed through his mic and into Dream's ears as he gently palmed at himself as he rode out his orgasm. Neither of them said anything as they stared at each other through the screen, breaths laboured.

Dream started chuckling, and before too long he was wheezing hysterically. "Sapitus Napitus!"

"Shut upppp…" Sapnap groaned.

"You seriously came-" Another fit of laughter erupted from him.

Scowling more at himself than at Dream, Sapnap grabbed a tissue from the box next to his computer to clean himself up.

"What even was that?" Dream wheezed.

"A moment of weakness…"

Dream snorted at that and before not too long Sapnap was chuckling along with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks as always for reading :) heard the second hand embarrassment has been pretty bad for some of you... Oops


	4. i didn't say anything

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took a really really long time to arrive! I'm sorry about that! I hope the winter holidays have been good for those of you who celebrated, enjoy whatever this mess is that follows! xx

The outcome of all this had surprised Dream for obvious reasons. He went through varying stages following his call with Sapnap, initially he was relieved but shortly after, he freaked out beyond all rational thought. Eventually he came around again but the panic would never be far behind. When it was dark outside and there was no light in the confines of his safe haven, not even the blue glow of his monitor from across the room, the late-night intrusive thoughts would torment him as he queried whether or not it had all been a dream.

The text Dream received from Sapnap in the morning was reassuring to no end. The Texan performed the miracle of soothing Dreams nervousness with his weirdly awkward and suggestive 'good morning' message. With some hesitation at first the blond typed back a reply and before not too long any concerns he had that veered towards regret had dissipated.  
The pair talked about the previous day but simultaneously didn't. By the end of their vague text discussion a few things were clear; they were good friends, really good friends, and they cared about each other. They had both enjoyed the "interaction" they'd had and through shy but eager texts they both agreed that they were happy with the idea of continuing with similar interactions as time went on.

Dream had blushed profusely from behind the safety of his phone screen at Sapnaps teasing jabs at his expense, the younger man finding great entertainment and joy in the recent discovery that Dream thought "so highly" of him, as Sapnap had put it.

For the first time in a few days Dream agreed to join George in a call along with Sapnap. 'Agreed' maybe wasn't quite accurate; rather than hiding himself away in shame he opted this time to join them with only a little trepidation. Sapnap had yet to make an appearance and in the meantime George took advantage of the noirettes absence to casually check up on the Floridian.

"So how did that talk go?"

"Talk?"

"You know, with Sap…"

"Oh. Yeah I mean it was…" A small cough caught in Dream's throat, a blush coating his cheeks. How do you even begin to explain what it was.

George chuckled quietly. "He uh, told me a few things."

Apparently you don't. "He did?" The blond let out an awkward breathy laugh, god dammit it Sapnap, he should've seen this coming.

A gentle laugh echoed in response. "Yeah yeah, he did. It's Sapnap what did you expect." He snickered.

"What did he…?"

"Not much!" George rushed out. "Uh well… Probably too much, but it's fine!"

Dream paused, a brief silence following as George chuckled quietly, somewhat awkwardly.

"I hope he didn't tell you anything you didn't want to know…"

"Aha well, I mean…" A bout of shame sizzled up inside him, Dream clenched his eyes behind his monitor, thankful the brunette couldn't see him. It could be worse he thought, he could be making George uncomfortable for even worse reasons, he'd been lucky, this was manageable.

"I'm happy for you though." The Brits gentle voice broke through the silence.

"George…"

"Whaddup my bitches."

And with that the conversation was over, the trio jumped back into their old ways as quickly as they could, bickering and teasing each other just as they had before the 'incident' as Dream would privately refer to it.   
Had they all been face to face George and Dream would have been sending discreet glances each other's way, silently thinking back on the conversation they'd been having that ended too abruptly, and wondering if they would continue it later. They wouldn't. Both of them would be thinking about that fact for some time after.

The reason they'd organised this call (organised rather than their common unplanned call-ins) was because George had set himself up with an ambitious to-do list for the month regarding streaming and uploads. It went unsaid that an organised call felt necessary to get them all back on track after Dreams sudden absence, without explicitly naming it as what it was. The premise of recording a video provided both a disguise for their resolved conflicts and then some actual content for George.

George had coded some mod that Dream couldn't quite wrap his head around. After 20 minutes of back and forth questions and answers and very little progress towards understanding what they were actually trying to accomplish, George groaned and rolled his eyes at his increasingly dumb and annoying friends, instructing them to just "Play the damn game".  
Dream did what he was told and set about with the goal in mind of trying to beat the ender dragon, George and Sapnap not far behind him, the latter getting distracted by seemingly everything and dragging the other two down with him.

"Dream honey where did you go?"

"Don't call me that." Dream laughed, spinning around in-game in search of Sapnaps gamertag with little success. In the distance he could just about see George scrambling up a weirdly generated hill in the neighboring Taiga biome.

"What? What's wrong with honey?" Sapnap whined. "Don't you like pet names darling?"

"Ew no, getting worse Sap."

"But sweetieeee!"

Dream groaned in response, this could last a while.

"You ignoring me now baby boy?"

The sound of clicking and tapping on keyboards filled the silence that followed. The noises generated from the game on their screens seemed to resonate louder. Dream said nothing this time, blush finally settling across his features, fingers jamming at his mouse harder than necessary.

"Oh so that one gets a reaction out of you…" The noirette chuckled

Dream frowned. "I didn't say anything."

"You didn't have to, baby boy."

Dream stilled, one hand loosening its grip on the mouse and the other hovering hesitantly above the keys. "Sapnap…" He muttered pointedly, they were not going down this road right now. Sapnap laughed delightedly at the blond's sudden quietness.

"I really shouldn't be here for this." George chimed in.

Sapnaps snickering increased in volume at the reminder that the older man had been there listening to his teasing. Dream bit his cheek, embarrassment welling up inside of him. "George-"

"Dreamie I think Gogy here is jealous!"

George sputtered violently through his mic, a shriek erupting from him. "I am not!"

"Aww it's okay George!" The Texan cooed between his laughs. "You can have a pet name too if you want!"

"This is ridiculous…"

"Well I'm gonna have to edit this part out…" The Brit sighed in defeat.

"Sorry George." Dream muttered, his unease surging due to Sapnaps lack of remorse as the younger man continued to snicker to himself.

George exhaled, "Eh, it's alright." His player appeared from behind the nearby grove of trees in-game and ran up to Dream, at some point while Dream had been temporarily distracted George had found his way back towards him. He watched the square figure curiously, the glasses on his skin were still so dumb. Dream jumped unexpectedly as George punched him in-game silently only to run off in the direction he'd come from again. What the hell was that about.

George decided that he didn't have enough content for an entertaining video, after a few hours of struggling to manoeuvre around the world the trio called it quits. They stayed on call for some time afterwards, discussing the logistics of doing a stream with the mod instead, although modifying a few elements for better content.

Shortly after Dream disconnected from the call, a sigh of relief escaped him as he deflated in his chair. He felt tired, he definitely felt more at ease and perhaps even a little energized but he was tired all the same.   
It had been a long time in retrospect, since he'd felt almost entirely relaxed, and almost devoid of guilt. He'd been hiding his dirty pleasures from his friends for so long, he felt such a brilliant rush at the fact that a small ounce of that weight had been lifted, and that it had been received with such an eager enthusiasm, at least from Sapnap.

George had been accepting too, Dream was glad of that. He speculated that he was probably slightly put off by Sapnaps boldness and lack of filter; thinking back on it, Dream cringed at the idea of whatever Sapnap could have overshared; George gave him the impression that the younger man had probably said more than Dream himself would have even dreamt of revealing. It crossed his mind that George might have been grossed out by the things he heard, the things he heard about Dream. That thought left a bitter taste in his mouth, his throat feeling tight.

Sapnap was a good friend, and he didn't mind the things Dream thought about him; he'd been lucky there, more than lucky even.  
George was equally a good friend, but the churning in his stomach reminded him of the doubt he had that the brunette would be as forgiving. It would be easier to lose George, he'd be too disturbed by Dream's tendencies, by his fantasies… 

Dream was in the wrong to relax, he didn't deserve to get off this easily. If Sapnap knew the full extent of it all there would be no chance that he'd stand by him; what would he think of Dream wanting them both?  
Glancing up at his screen, the other two were still on call together. His knuckles rapped anxiously against the table, he rested his head on his other hand, spinning side to side gently as his eyes stared lazily at the screen. They wouldn't stand the truth.

He sat in silence for a moment, mulling it all over in his head. So much for positive thinking, he chuckled. This was all inevitable now, everything he thought and felt always came back to guilt. With a resigned sigh he lifted himself from his desk and crept towards his bedroom door.

It was dark in his room but amongst it all there was light, a hazy blue from his computer that encompassed it all, that rarely changed. He stood in the doorway glancing back at his own space; as a kid the dark corners had worried him, he'd always have a million theories as to what could be hidden in the crevices staring back at him. He'd been so obsessed with light back then, the lava lamp by his bed and the cheap glow in the dark stars he'd slapped all across his ceiling being a proof of his childish determination to keep the monsters at bay.

With time he'd become more comfortable with the idea that not everything could be illuminated and bright, and he'd grown to appreciate the light that did dance throughout his room naturally. He stopped chasing lights, he liked the dark.

He turned back to the hallway outside, there was no light. On nights when he was feeling particularly introspective, which was more than not these days, he'd say that leaving the familiar darkness of his room and staring at the solid blackness of the doorway to the rest of his home felt much like any number of his experiences throughout life.  
He didn't want to hurt Sapnap and George, and he didn't want them to hate him either.  
He really needed that glass of water now.


	5. that's the excuse he would give

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You people are so incredibly kind, the things you say mean the world to me and I'm so glad that so many of you like this story :) xxxx
> 
> I hope this next chapter will satisfy you all, this time I'd say there's more "fluff" than usual, but that's not to say there isn't angst, there's always angst... Thank you and enjoyyy

Dream felt that he'd maybe adjusted better over time; he was undeniably a mess of contradictory emotions and feelings but he felt that he had a grip on it a little better.  
At least for the past few weeks things had been okay, or in other words he hadn't slipped up.  
Things were going smoothly, there hadn't been many hiccups in his life recently, apart from on twitter where he had fallen victim to drama again. It was late and Dream had finally given in to the urge to crawl out from the comfort of his bed and poke around the kitchen cabinets.

He'd filmed his next manhunt that afternoon and due to the few hours of intense adrenaline he always felt a drop in the evening afterwards. This time Sapnap had been able to help put off the drop in energy levels, delaying the inevitable with a far more enticing interaction to follow up from their hours of back and forth chase.  
The hunters had won, and after their little celebration at the end, Dream's heartbeat had only just begun to return to normal when he received the most wonderful suggestive text from Sapnap.

It was a photo, the noirette had become quite fond of sending them and Dream was just as eager as ever to receive them, a flush covering his cheeks as he rushed to say his goodbyes and video call Sapnap.

He blinked a few times as he clicked on the kitchen lights, the harsh white light contrasting starkly with the darkness of the corridor and staircase Dream had just crept down. It probably would have been more sensible to turn on the lights but he hadn't wanted to disturb his parents or siblings as he passed by their rooms, the light from his phone was good enough until now.  
He placed his phone down on the counter, opening discord out of idle curiosity as he did so. After opening a cupboard he glanced back at his phone and scrolled through his groups to see who might be online or in a vc. A small smile graced his lips as he noticed Sapnap and George together. Without another thought he joined the vc but stayed on mute, he didn't want to make too much noise and disturb his family, it would echo too much in the kitchen.

"It's just been so great George." Sapnaps quiet voice rang from the speakers, he sounded chilled. "I'd never even thought about Dream that way before but now I can't imagine not thinking about him that way at all…"

Dream quirked his eyebrow with a smile as the words registered, he'd joined at a good time apparently. He turned the sound down a little.

"I bet." George chimed in. Dream chuckled to himself, the Brit was always getting himself caught listening to other people prattle on. Dreams eyes landed on some of his sister's chocolate, he still needed something sweet to make up for the adrenaline drop from earlier, at least that's the excuse he would give her later.

"I was talking to him on video call yesterday-"

"You got Dream to do a video call?"

"Yeah I know, he really isn't as spectacularly ugly as we thought he was."

"That's wild."

Dream rolled his eyes, at least he knew that they talked as much shit about him when he wasn't around as they did to his face.

"He blushes so easy George… It's adorable, he's just so pretty…" Sapnap breathed out quietly.

Dammit Sapnap, Dreams cheeks tinted pink as quickly as the words registered in his mind. He cursed the texan for being right but he couldn't help himself from reacting to the words he was hearing, last time Sapnap had told him those things the pair had been on call; Dream had been wrapped up in his covers, sheet shoved down to his ankles. He had pressed the phone to his ear eagerly, cool glass sticking to the warmth of his damp skin as he gasped for air, his other hand gripping desperately at his leaking prick.  
Sapnaps voice whispered dangerously in his ear, encouraging him all while keeping him in line. "I bet you look so pretty right now, all hot and sticky for me, do you wanna cum for me baby boy?"

Dream clenched his eyes at the memory, he allowed Sapnap too much room in his head and it was really starting to take a toll on his ability to stay composed around the younger man while he said literally anything.

"What? Dream gets shy?"

"Yeah I was hella surprised. But like not always, he's still super cocky, he just gets really quiet sometimes. Like submissive kinda."

What. Wait what.

"Yeah Sap, you're saying too much again."

"You asked!"

"That is definitely not what I asked!"

"Yeah Pandas you should shut up now."  
Dream hurriedly unmuted and whispered directly into his phone's microphone to chastise the younger man.

"Shit Dream's here? That's so sus." The Texan man moaned.

George's breathy laugh made Dream smile. "Were you just lurking in vc Dream?"

"That's kinda creepy Dream, Gogy tell Dream he's creepy."

"Nah Dream just put an end to that neverending conversation, he's my saviour right now."

"Rude."

"Dream why are you on mute?"

At the question Dream popped a piece of chocolate into his mouth, placing the rest of it down on the counter. He typed a quick message to their discord group chat explaining his current activities and concerns regarding noise. Sapnap had snickered, commenting on the fact that him and George were making noise; proceeding to further prove this point by talking at an increasing volume and chattering obnoxiously.  
With a frown Dream cursed, pressing his hand to the speaker to muffle the sound. He rushed upstairs after turning the downstairs lights off, shut his door and unmuted hastily.

"Sapnap you Idiot, shut the fuck up!" He hissed.

George laughed at the Floridians annoyance. "You could have just left Dream."

"Nah he wouldn't, obviously didn't wanna miss out on whatever we said about him. Just feeding his ego."

Dream groaned. That wasn't exactly true.

"Moving on… How's it going?"

"Sapnap was just trying to convince me to tell him about my love life, by telling me about his." George supplied, monotone voice implying he'd been suffering through this for a while.

The blond laughed. "Right, as if that would work."

"Yeah that's why I told him!"

"Hey what the hell George, you agreed!"

"I never agreed, at this point you're just having a conversation with some voice in your head and you're making me listen to it." The eldest of the trio bit out, tone dripping with sarcasm. Dream could just about imagine the eye roll the brunette was sporting.

"You'd tell me if there was anyone wouldn't you George?" Dream cut in, smiling at the miffed sound that came from the youngest.

"Of course I would Dream."

"Well go on then, how's your love life?"

"Since you asked so nicely, I've been talking to someone…"

"What the Fuck! George!" Sapnap burst out in outrage. "We've been talking for like, an hour! Why do you tell Dream stuff immediately and not me??" 

The other two snickered at Sapnaps despair, laughter increasing as they listened to the ongoing tantrum. "This isn't fair…" The texan whined, failing to hide his own chuckles as he was caught up in the laughter of his friends.

Dream laughed, "Go on George, what's actually happening with you?" he quietened enough to ask properly.

George snickered briefly before giving in, a small contented sigh escaped him. "Okay, well there is actually this girl."

Oh.

"Nice. What's her name?" Sapnap questioned eagerly, clearly ignoring his previous complaints.

"I'm not telling you that."

"You're just being so rude tonight." The younger man whined.

George ignored him. "I met her a couple weeks ago through some old classmates. Got talking and I really like her, been texting pretty much every day."

That stung a little. Dream laughed at whatever it was that Sapnap said after that, joined in with him teasing and throwing around small jabs at George's expense, but he wasn't really there. His head felt weirdly fuzzy, he knew he was talking but he didn't really know what he was saying, it must've been the right thing to say though because both Sapnap and George were laughing with him.  
The Brit had had girlfriends before in the time that Dream had known him, and the subject had always been discussed in the same way they were discussing it now. Laughing, teasing, supportive but still nonchalant. But this time, it hurt.

"Damn…" Sapnap yawned. "I'm so tired guys."

"We should do a sleep call." George suggested, voice quiet and gentle. "What do you guys think?"

"I'm down."

"Dream?

"What?" Dream focused again at the sound of his name, pushing his thoughts to the back of his mind.

"Sleep call?" The Brit said laughing to himself quietly, the sound made Dream shiver. "You down for one?"

"Right now?" He breathed out.

Sapnaps boisterous tone made him jump at the sudden loudness. "Yes right now, you Nimrod. Keep up with the program Dre." Dream rolled his eyes in response.

Dream felt a little lost. At this point he always felt lost, there was always something, nothing ever just felt good anymore. Along with George and Sapnap, they switched over to a video call on their phones, Dream didn't have his camera turned on but the other two did. His phone was propped up on his bedside table so he could watch them both as he lay on his side in bed, covers pulled up to his ears to shield him from the darkness.   
He'd bothered to turn his brightness all the way up in a feeble attempt to see the other two more clearly, the pair had both turned their lights off although George was still visible due to street lights outside, that he prattled on about for 20 minutes with no real reason, and Sapnap had some glowing light somewhere in his room. 

It was pretty late now and Dream felt utterly blessed to be able to just watch them both as they slept. For once he could truly focus his thoughts on one singular thing and right this moment it was the two boys in front of him. These truly special boys in front of him.

"Hey Dream?" 

Dream jumped as he looked back to Sapnap who's eyes had opened just a little.

"Are you awake?" The younger muttered quietly, almost as if he was afraid to disturb the silence, Dream smiled, that was a rare thought.

"Yeah… I'm awake."

There was a pause where neither of the two said anything. Dream crept closer to the edge of his bed to look at his phone more intently, at Sapnap.  
The noirette was smiling a little at the news of Dreams present state, eyes barely open and lashes creating flickering shadows across his cheeks. Dream was grateful for that little light, it illuminated Sapnaps features beautifully, just for him to see.

"Can you turn your camera on?"

"I look a mess Sap…"

"Don't care."

Dream huffed quietly but pulled his hand out from beneath the covers anyway, arm prickling with goosebumps from the sudden chill breeze from the ceiling fan above him. He pressed the button to turn on his camera before hastily engulfing himself in the warmth of his bed again.

Sapnap grinned lazily, eyes brightening slightly at the sight. "There's my baby boy." He chuckled.

Dream cursed, glancing at himself on his phone. Reaching his hand out again to muss up his hair, middle parts did him no favours. "Sap… George is here…"

The Texan rolled his eyes and shrugged.

Somehow Dream felt more peaceful this way, in theory nothing had changed; he was still lying there in bed, on his own and in the dark, thoughts whirling through his mind a mile a minute. Just moments ago he was feeling his usual late night restlessness, the urge to be doing anything but lie there fighting tooth and nail with his body's need for stillness.  
Knowing someone was there with him helped, maybe not physically but even so, knowing Sapnap was there helped.

"You look pretty…" Sapnap whispered.

Dream smiled at that. "You're so soft."

"Eh." The younger man yawned. "You like it."

"I do…"

Sapnap smiled widely, a small glint in his eyes. "You're so soft."

A chuckle escaped him and he brushed his hair out of his eyes.  
He cared so much for him, he couldn't help it anymore. He'd known Sapnap for years now, and he'd felt love for him for such a long time he couldn't pinpoint exactly when the texan became so important to him. He listened to the others breathing even when he turned away to watch the rotation of his fan. It was different now though. His hearing zoned in on the younger man's gentle inhales, every other noise became obsolete. He closed his eyes, letting the rhythmic noises sooth him. This was nice.

Dream thought about George, who he hadn't looked at but he knew was in the call, sleeping as if he were dead to the world.

Eventually the gentle hum Sapnap emitted became too quiet for him to hear and he turned his head to look back at him. The other had tucked his head under his covers, effectively muffling any noises he might make. Dream sighed, if only he could sleep as easily as the other two could right this moment. 

He chanced a glance at George, a calming feeling enveloping him again as any air his lungs had been holding seemed to escape him. He could stare at either of them for hours on end and feel this same peacefulness he thought.   
God he was so screwed. Looking at George, Dream knew that whatever it was he was feeling for Sapnap on top of their years of trust and friendship was just as present with George. He smiled as George mumbled random words in his sleep, a fluttering erupted in his stomach at the gentle frown and the small creases that formed between the Brits eyebrows, his dark hair was pushed out of his face.  
Dream bit back a laugh when he recognized the words "fucking jackass". 

He didn't deserve his friends, he really didn't. But he was glad he had them.

Looking back on it he wasn't surprised he'd fallen for them both, he shouldn't have needed some stupid erotic stories online for him to realize that but he did. They hadn't read anything together in weeks, well, he and Sapnap had and it had entailed things that he was sure George would want no part in. Things seemed to have changed so much yet not at all.  
It was always plaguing him in the back of his mind, painfully so. What would Sapnap think? How would George feel? Vice versa. He truly had backed himself into the most paradoxical corner; he had more than he thought he'd ever deserve but the possibility of losing it all and more was always such a nagging a prominent fear. One slip up is all it would take… 

He jerked up at the feeling of wetness on his hand. What the hell. He wiped his hand off on his sheet quickly and rubbed at his face, when he pulled his hand away his fingers were wet too. Oh.  
Sitting up in bed Dream glanced back at his phone where the other two were sleeping peacefully. A harsh shudder coursed through him at the sound of George's voice, the undiscernible words escaping the Brits sleeping form caused Dream to curl in on himself.  
Nothing felt good anymore.

He slapped a hand over his mouth, a muffled whimper rattling him out of nowhere, where did this come from? He wasn't even aware he'd been upset. He didn't want to wake either of them up. With a suddenly jerky hand he left the call. He'd apologize in the morning, claim one of them was snoring, at least that's the excuse he would give them later.


	6. i actually don't care

"Well?" The clipped sound of George's voice echoed through Dream's headset in the otherwise silent call.

Dream's eyes scanned through the lines of code that George had sent to him 30 minutes prior. Somewhere in here some error was causing the mod George had been working on to glitch out, leaving the disgruntled Brit at his wits end.

"Dream." 

Dream glanced up with a defeated sigh at the video call on his monitor where George was staring intensely at him through his webcam. "Sorry George…" To which the Brunet groaned in response and shoved his chair away from his desk, discarding his headset and abandoning his setup as he stormed off. Dream remained silent as he watched the display of frustration, eyes flickering back towards the code helplessly. Everything seemed fine, it truly had him stumped.

Out of the blue Sapnaps voice broke through the silence just as George's door slammed behind him, "Sheesh what's crawled up his ass all of a sudden."

Dream rolled his eyes in response, "Come on, don't be mean, you know he's been working on this for hours."

"Whatever, the stream's in like what? 3 days? He's getting angry for no reason."

Dream shrugged even though Sapnap couldn't see him. He couldn't disagree with him, George was getting wound up over nothing but either way he felt bad; he didn't like it when George was upset and he liked it even less when there was nothing he could do about it.

"You know what, I think it's something else." Sapnap speculated.

"Yeah? Like what?"

"Obviously, he needs to get some." The Texan laughed to himself quietly.

Dream raised a brow at the suggestion. "To get some?" He repeated mockingly with a snort, "Not everything is about sex Sapnap."

"Yeah but he got blown off last week didn't he. He's probably still sulking."

Dream paused, leaning back in his chair as he considered the idea. It wasn't out of the question, George had been annoyed last week when he'd brought it up but he hadn't mentioned it since. That being said he definitely had less patience than usual.  
Sapnap may well be right on this one. "Wait what?? I didn't know about that."

"He's gonna be bitchy for weeks, everything we say is gonna piss him off…"

"Ok you're being mean again. Everything you say pisses him off anyway." Dream huffed. "Was it that girl…?"

"I mean unless George suddenly got a whole lot of game, I'm pretty sure it's her, yeah."

"...He really liked her."

"I know, it really sucks…"

"Do you know what happened?"

"He didn't say much, I had to nag him for ages before he'd say anything." Of course you did. "I'm not sure but from the little he told me, I Think, he wasn't the only guy she'd been talking to, and it sounds like she preferred the other guy."

"What the fuck?? That's so messed up." Dream grimaced, brows drawing together to form a defined frown.

Sapnap nodded from behind his screen. "Yeah it's complete bullshit. I mean this is Gogy, she doesn't know what she's missing out on."

"Fuck that, she chose the wrong guy, her loss."

After a long pause that couldn't have been more than 30 seconds, Sapnap snickered. "You got mad there."

Dream huffed out an airy laugh, no point in denying it. "Can you blame me?"

"Nah not at all." Another silence, this whole conversation seemed to take place in their minds with their own thoughts at least half the time. "I feel so bad for him…" Sapnap muttered.

Eventually George came back, his irritation still visibly present thanks to the bite in his tone, but even so the 20 minute long breather had been enough to bring him back. The words the other two had shared stayed between them and nothing more was said on the subject upon George's return.  
The brunet apologized for his outburst and the three moved on, but not before Sapnap had made the necessary digs at George's temper tantrum. Dream rolled his eyes as his friends bickered, promptly shutting them down and moving on.

"Hey I was thinking…" Sapnap spoke with a semi serious lilt to his voice.

"That's dangerous for you."

"Shut upppp."

Dream wheezed. The satisfaction he got from winding up his friends sometimes felt like the only thing he'd ever need. "What were you thinking?"

"What if we met up? 

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, I mean there's nothing stopping us."

"Do you know how expensive cross atlantic flights are?" George quipped with an obvious smile.

Dream gasped. "Are you saying we're not worth the investment George?"

"It would have to be a profitable investment in the first place, this is a financial drain."

"Geooorge." The youngest whined. "Stop being a bitch, we know you want to see us."

The oldest huffed in return, rolling his eyes with a smile still gracing his lips. "Yeah I guess."

The three had laughed and talked avidly about their plans, finally settling on the idea that Sapnap and George would fly over to Florida. George had made it clear that if they were going to meet up he wanted this to also be his opportunity to go to the States, rather than the other two flying across the ocean to rainy Britain. Another factor was that there was more to do in Florida than in Texas, at least as far as Sapnap was concerned, he wanted to go to Disneyworld.

Dream was over the moon to put it lightly, although he chose to contain his excitement. He’d announced his good news at dinner with his family, his sister had teased him profusely about his giddiness. Apparently he hadn’t been as successful at containing his delight then he’d first assumed, either way it didn’t matter to him that his attempts were in vain; this was good news, what was there to contain.  
His mom, on the over hand, had been far more proactive than his sister. Dream had never quite realised how much of an impact both George and Sapnap had had on his mom as well, it hadn’t occurred to him how well she knew the two boys, nor did it occur to him how much he’d prattled on about the two over the years.  
The important thing was that she was just as thrilled as he was and not long after dinner she’d beckoned Dream over to her in the living room where she sat with Dream’s old laptop, that he’d given to her after acquiring his first computer, in her lap.

With a grin Dream had plopped down on the couch beside her while she pointed out all the small houses available for rent nearer to town. Dream didn’t really care where they would all stay, but his mom’s insistence that they would be better off having their own space and being closer to town would make the experience all the better, and was more than enough to win him over.

A week or so later, the dates had been set, the flights had been booked, and they’d found a house suitable to rent for the duration of their stay. In a month and a half they would all be together, Dream was very happy with the organisation of it all.

Not long after that Dream and Sapnap found themselves texting while on a call with a streaming George. He was doing a normal speedrun stream, although the Brit wasn’t having a lot of luck and it was starting to annoy him.  
Dream glanced up at his monitor where he had Georges stream playing, he chewed his thumb in silence as his eyes danced across the older man's tensed features. Both him and Sapnap had picked up on George’s tenseness as of late, pegging it down as the usual daily stresses getting the better of him and maybe a small portion of his strain being due to the previously discussed romantic failures. It had taken only one major blowout from George, that surprisingly Dream had been the receiver of, rather than Sapnap, for the two to start showing serious concern. 

Dream couldn’t even recall what it had been about anymore but it obviously hadn’t been taken well, he had been teasing the brunet and had said something that pushed George that little bit too far. The latter unleashing his anger and shouting out words that held far too much irritation and bite for it to be brushed aside as a simple loss of temper.  
George hadn’t talked to Dream for two days after that and Sapnap had been left in the middle; trying to talk down a wound up George and reassure a shocked Dream. After two days of insufferable radio silence, Dream had sent the Brit another heartfelt apology for whatever it was he’d said to upset him, this time longer than the last texts he’d dared to send. George had cracked after that and called him, apologising himself and asking that the pair move on from it.

There wasn’t another blowout like that one in the time following, but George’s tense demeanor didn’t shift and if anything his fuse became all the more easier to set off. Dream kept a distance from certain topics and refrained from saying too much in fear of pushing the oldest too far and reliving the event all over again. This meant that Sapnap was the one to fall prey to Georges temper more often than not.

Dream sent Sapnap a quick text as he watched the frown on George's face grow more prominent. His face had gone really red, the colour creeping up his neck from beneigh his shirt, tinging his ears a flushed red as his temper grew worse, curse words escaping under his breath.

A donation with a question appeared on Georges stream and Dream sighed with relief at the possibility to talk about something, the previous silence had been deafening and going on for an uncomfortably long time. It was getting difficult for Dream and Sapnap to pretend to be preoccupied with something, George’s lack of communication and coldness was making it hard for their cheerful attitudes to be convincing things. The past week had been arduous and it wasn’t looking up.

Sapnap pounced on the question. “Have you guys been reading any more fanfiction?” He repeated the donations question before answering on George's behalf, the Brits irritation at the game causing him to not pay as much attention to his donations. “Well I don’t think George has lately, Dream and I have though.”

“Hm.” Dream made a sound in response as his name was mentioned. “Yeah we have, we read this really funny one actually- George you’d like this, tell George and chat about it Sap.” He encouraged Sapnap, they weren't saying enough on this stream and he gathered that the chat was starting to get a little worried by George’s silence.

Sapnap laughed as he was reminded of the story;. “Yeah, right! So it was really stupid, like Dream was this mafia boss and you-”

“I actually don’t care, Sapnap.” George said. Dream stilled at the coldness of his tone, that would be difficult to play off.

Sapnap laughed again, sounding more strained than the laugh just before. “Gog don’t be like that! If you were jealous of Dream and I reading without you, you should’ve just said. Your sleep schedule is so broken.” Dream cringed, that was not the right thing to say but he couldn’t blame the youngest, he wasn’t sure what he’d say to play that off as a joke either.

George huffed. “Why would I be jealous of that, you two do whatever you want.”

Ouch.

Dream cringed at the deafening silence, he didn’t know how to salvage this. He shot the chat another quick look and his throat felt dry at the number of concerned messages, the drama channels were going to eat this up. The trio had had issues before but they’d always kept it off stream. He sent a quick message to Sapnap, a set of orange hearts. The Texan responded immediately; “i dont know what to do”.  
Dream agreed, he didn’t have a clue.

After a few more minutes of silence, George died again with a grunt of frustration. It was then that he called it quits, setting the three of them free and ending the stream after an awkward set of goodbyes.  
They stayed on call after that, even though none of them said anything and George continued to ignore their presence. With a gulp Dream called out to him, “George?”.

George glanced up at the camera and then looked away again, sighing heavily and leaning back in his chair.

“That was…” He didn’t know what to say, what should he say. It was in Dream’s habits to tell George how well the stream went at the end, but he couldn’t. It didn’t go well, it was awful, it was beyond that.

The brunet nodded from behind his screen. “I know.”

Sapnap still hadn’t said anything, Dream couldn’t blame him. “I’m sorry guys, I don’t know what I’m doing…” George muttered, if they hadn’t all been completely silent they probably wouldn't have heard it.

“It's okay George.” Dream didn’t know what more to say than that but he was relieved by the sound of Sapnap humming in agreement. It had become apparent over time that whatever it was that was going through George's head was causing him more problems than they’d first expected. George had never been particularly communicative, especially not when it came to feelings and such but this time he had shut his friends out completely, and neither Dream nor Sapnap knew how to handle it.

Another sigh broke their disturbed silence, “I think I’m gonna go, thank you guys for being on my stream. I know it was… Yeah.” and he reached out his arm before disconnecting his camera.

Dream deflated a little, and Sapnap's silence pursued.

“Wait, George-”

“Bye.”

And the sound of George disconnecting from the call filled their silence, it felt like it echoed a few times, ringing in their ears for an undefined amount of time after he left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys i'm sorry this took such a painfully long time. this chapter took me a while to write because i wasn't entirely sure what i wanted to say in this one, i had more plans set up fro the next few chapters and this one felt a lot like empty space. i think i've managed to change that though, this chapter made me genuinely sad to write and i'm feeling a little deflated from it!
> 
> anyway i hope you all are okay, and thank you so much for the support, i see some of you out there who come back and i appreciate you all.


	7. you're not listening to me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and here is more angst... i hope this chapter coming out earlier makes up for how long the last one took! this one might be a little short because i had to split it into two to make it be more balanced, it also means i get to upload sooner!
> 
> anyway, enjoy x

Sapnap had become quieter too, less active in their group chats and discord calls; Dream knew it was because the noirette couldn’t handle the idea of George being upset with him, and he couldn’t blame him. George’s temper was something to be worried about; the Brit was irritable and a cynic but his annoyance towards the pair never went that deep. But when it did, his anger wasn’t something to be taken lightly.  
George had been mean, and unfair, and Dream knew that Something was causing him troubles but he didn’t know how to bring it up with him, not without opening himself up to the possibility of having his head bitten off.

A day or so later, late at night, Dream was curled up in his bed, which seemed to be the only place he ever found himself feeling comfortable. He was unsurprisingly on a call with Sapnap, he’d always craved the physical presence of the other two but knowing that it wasn’t possible had always successfully helped him squash that thought. Since their talk though, since they made the decision and the plans he had no reason to deny himself the wishful thinking.  
More so now than ever before, he craved the feeling of Sapnap at his side, warming his side and relaxing him. Until then, Patches’s petite frame that was stretched out languidly between his legs, head tucked haphazardly under his knee, would have to do for now. Dream hoped that soon he would find Patches snuggling up to his friends, the thought warmed him a little.

“Sap, you should talk to him…” He encouraged the noirette, he’d been trying to coax Sapnap back into his old optimistic and sociable ways. Dream wasn’t good at this kind of problem solving, he was quick on his feet in more ways than one but this wasn’t his area. Sapnap was their leader when it came to social harmony, even though he was the one stirring the most chaos, he was the first to make amends. Dream needed him, he wasn’t sure how long he could keep this up.

“Dream… He’s just gonna get annoyed with me again.” The blond paused as he thought of something to say back to that. But apparently he paused for too long. “See you can’t even pretend that he won’t, you know he’s been so grumpy.”

Dream huffed, he hated conflict just as much as Sapnap but wasn’t anywhere near as good at handling it head-on. He felt a little deflated that even Sapnap was struggling to wade through the pessimism. “But it’s upsetting you Pandas…”

“He’s upset too, Whatever the fuck is going on with him, I don’t wanna make it worse.”

“I don’t think you could.”

“Dude, do you wanna try talking ‘feelings’ with George? Cause honestly be my guest.”

The older man paused again, thinking over the others' words. “I think... I will actually. He’s not gonna feel any better if he keeps shutting us out, and it would be nice to have him back…”

“...You are so brave.”

“Shut up.”

“Hey! No! I’m being serious.”

Another huff escaped him. “Yeah, yeah…” He leant back against his headboard, head falling back against the metal frame of the bed, a clanging sound indicating the contact his neck made with the metal, as well as the cool chill that but as his skin softly.

Sapnap called out to him again after a minute, voice once again soft and uncertain. “Dream?”

“Yeah?” He hummed in response.

“If you do get through to him a little, make sure he knows we love him.” Dream smiled at that, he loved how unconditionally caring the Texan was. Always eager to give and please, and as he’d learnt, not afraid to take when the time suited?

“I will.” He answered, voice soft and fond while his fingers reached for Patches’s fur, Fingers combing through the cats hair delicately. “...Love you Sapnap.” He hadn’t told him that since they started messing about, it felt heavier now, but it felt good to say it.

The grin on the other's face could be heard through the way he spoke, and Dream should have expected the sly question that he was about to receive. “I love you too. Want me to send you a dick pic later?”

He wheezed. “Sapnap, I swear to god.” He really should have expected it, but at the same time, this conversation really wasn’t the time for suggestions like those.

“Is that a yes?”

He chuckled again. “Yeah.” A faint blush dusted his cheeks.

He knew it wasn’t ideal but he caught George off-guard. The oldest had begrudgingly joined the SMP at Dreams request and they’d played for a few hours. By the end of it George was smiling and laughing animatedly. Joking and making jabs at how Dream had almost died while chasing the Brit up Tommy’s stupid reverse-coaster.  
The grin he’d had plastered across his face for the past few hours settled into a gentle smile, the fluttering in his chest making him feel warm while he ignored the minor headache that he’d acquired from all the laughter.

He’d missed this, George had always been here but recently a part of him had upped and left, taking with him his usual cynical cheerfulness and laughter. Dream had missed him, it felt good to laugh with him like this again. A quick glance at his phone where he had a notification from Sapnap, asking him how things were going, reminded him that things aren't as they normally would be. That when he left the call, the next time he spoke to George, they would be back to this strange coldness. He couldn’t stand the idea of it, he had to just get this over with.

With hesitation, he called out to him. “Hey George, could we actually talk about something?” Here goes nothing.

“Oh no.”

“What?” Dream laughed at George’s immediate skepticism.

“Ugh, come on then. What do you want to talk about?” A smile curving the corner of his lips.

He smiled at the way the other was still so relaxed, he almost regretted starting this conversation. “Well, you. Sap and I have kinda been worried about you lately…”

“Oh.” There was a pause while the Brit thought to himself, mulling it over Dream assumed. Obviously this time he got lucky. “Okay, I- Yeah. Okay.”

Relief rushed over him as he wasn’t immediately shut out. He replied quickly and in one breath. “I know something is messing with you. It's just- Can you talk to me? Please?”

George sighed, pausing again before a groan escaped him. Dream could imagine the way his hands were rubbing at his eyes before grabbing at his hurl, fingers curling painfully. “Yeah, okay okay… I guess things have been getting me down.”

You guess. “Things?”

“Yeah…” George hummed. Dream frowned at how difficult the brunette was finding this, he had never been good at opening up but he always ended up doing it. “I uh… well, I feel- I feel very, ugh. Dream…” He whined, pleading to be let off the hook.

“Come on, George.”

George huffed. “I think I feel like, unlovable, or something…” 

“What?”

“Yeah, like, no one wants me. And it’s starting to really suck-”

Dream cut him off. “That’s ridiculous. George what are you talking about.” He didn’t like what George was saying, it wasn’t true. God, he wanted him so badly. “That’s such bullshit, what do you mean you’re unlovable?”

“Dream, you’re not listening to me.” The anger was in George’s voice causing Dream to jump suddenly at the change. In the past few hours where they’d enjoyed nothing but each other’s company with no stress, and all issues forgotten. “You said you wanted me to talk, so fucking listen! You can’t just tell me what I’m feeling, Dream! I already have no control of that myself, I don’t need you to decide for me.”

“George, I’m sorry…”

“Yeah, well. You should be.”

“You’re not unlovable George…”

"Right, but clearly there's something about me that repulses others. That makes me so fucking undesirable." Dream sank further into his desk chair, the tightness in his chest growing as he listened to George, actually listened to him talk about what had been weighing down on him. It didn’t feel good. "I see everyone around me who I've had even the slightest bit of interest in get-together with someone in the past few months! It's just frustrating!" The older man bit out.

“George you know it’s not like that, this was just one girl-”

“It’s not even about her Dream! Why don’t you get that? Like, it would have been really nice to have someone like me back the way I like them but I honestly don’t care about her anymore.” He groaned.

“Then why have you been so…”

“So what? Dream.”

Dream stuttered over his words, cursing himself for making things worse. “George, I- Well… You’ve- I don’t know George! You’ve not been happy!” 

“Yeah, no kidding.” George answered, the response short and quipped. “It just feels like everyone I fall for, and you know I don’t get like that with a lot of people, either don’t acknowledge me at all, or even worse, do notice me and still choose someone else!” The older huffed out, irritation peaking in his tone as he rambled on. “It just pisses me off so much, I can’t control who I have feelings for! I mean even when it was you and Sapnap-" There was a sudden pause, George's harsh tone teetering off into a tense silence.

Dream held his breath for a second, the words not quite hitting him yet. "Am I supposed to read into that?" He uttered out quietly. The words didn’t quite make sense, there were too many of them and George had rushed them out too quickly. Dream didn’t want to make assumptions knowing that his own mind would create some messed up illusion. But wouldn’t that be ideal. Stop it.

"No. No you aren't." The older muttered.

"Okay…"

"I'm gonna go." George bit out, harsh tone returning, the bitterness in his voice as prominent as ever.

"George-"

"I don't want to talk anymore Dream."

And with that he was gone. The sudden silence was overwhelming, the words finally fully reaching his head and an understanding settled within him. What are you doing to me, George. He felt the cavity in his chest grow, breath seemingly escaping him and the emotions he should be feeling, appearing to have never existed in the first place. He felt… Empty. It was overpowering. He didn’t even get the chance to make sure George knew they loved him, that felt so much more important now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> again and again and again. thank you all so much for the support, you've all been so so lovely :)  
> i hope you all enjoy this chapter and that yo're having a lovely day xx


	8. and there he stood

George wouldn’t talk to them, at least he didn't show any signs of having noticed their multiple attempts at contact. After a few days of ignored phone calls, falsely casual snapchats and pleading text messages, it became apparent to the younger two that George had no intention of letting them in.

Dream felt so incredibly guilty. He reasoned with himself that it wasn’t his fault that George was upset and suffering, but god, he had sounded so messed up. Dream hated it, he hated not being able to help. He hated the idea that he had made things worse even less.  
Dream felt ready to curl back in on himself, the temptation to hide away was appealing to him and definitely winning him over. Except that Sapnap was having none of it, after barely a day of limited conversation Sapnap had dragged him into a call and told him that that was exactly what he was Not going to do. The noirette reminded him that he wasn’t going to handle both of his best friends going reclusive, and that he already needed Dream fully here in order to cope with the fact that George wasn’t. Dream had felt guilty at that, and pushed through his reclusive inclinations. For Sapnap.

Things didn’t look up with George, neither of them had succeeded in dragging him back into their safe bubble.Although that didn’t stop them from trying; a week later Sapnap and Dream had been whispering about their missing counterpart quietly, his absence creating a void, neither of them really had any idea how to deal with, or how they could possibly fill it.   
It was about 3 o’clock and Dream was supposed to be enjoying one of his rare moments away from his computer while he supervised Patches running around the garden, chasing after flies with her tail wagging back and forth in anticipation. Instead he was hunched over, legs swinging in a fidgety manner at the end of their back garden patio, he would usually enjoy it but this time the sun was too bright and the neighbours were being too loud. His hair kept blowing into his face, a consequence of him having broken his hair tie while he tried to pull his hair out of the way, his stress getting the better of him and the stretched elastic band snapping and hitting his wrist painfully.

His phone was sat on the wooden planks beside him with the speaker turned on so he could hear Sapnap without needing to hold the phone to his ear. His ears had started to ache recently from the prolonged use of his headset, which was weird really because it had never really bothered him before. He had talked to his mom about it at some point and she’d suggested that maybe his stress was manifesting itself as aches and pains. The idea seemed a little odd to Dream but he was a momma’s boy, and he couldn’t deny that he had many aches, she might have had a point.  
Either way, it hurt to press the phone to his ear, especially the way he would usually grip it and Sapnap’s tendency to raise his voice at random intervals.

Dream thought that he was dealing with Georges absence quite well in the great scheme of things, at least maybe he felt that way because it was more apparent that Sapnap wasn’t. While Dream could avoid the sore topic for days, the youngest couldn’t help but express his worries given any opportunity. He cursed the way Sapnap held his heart on his sleeve, it wasn’t a bad trait, not by any means, but the constant reminder that there was an important part missing and stopping him from feeling whole was really starting to drain him.

He was on call with Sapnap who was currently subjecting him to another set of concerns regarding their missing friend. The Floridian was zoning out as he heard Sapnap’s never ending rant sounding from his phone speaker. He swatted away a fly and sighed as George’s name was yet again brought up. Sapnap had been monopolising all his efforts to try and get a response out of the distant Brit across the ocean from them. Dream had told him that the way he was going about it was destined to fail and that he was wasting his time, but that didn't stop Sapnap. The Texan couldn’t cope with conflict, he didn’t like it when things weren’t right between them and although he didn’t like to admit it, he always felt affected on a very personal level. His hurt was palpable and thunderous.

Sapnap had resorted to spamming George on discord. The attempt was childish and Dream thought it was utterly stupid, and bound to do nothing but piss the oldest off more and make him even less likely to want to contact them. But he couldn’t blame Sapnap, he was getting desperate himself and the radio silence was killing him.  
He jumped at the sound of Sapnaps excited cry; he’d been jumping between messaging and calling the other for the past 20 minutes.

“George!” Dream perked up at that.

“George hey! Wait, George- Oh…”

Dream closed his eyes at the sudden silence and the sound of disappointment that thread itself into Sapnaps voice, with another heavy breath he picked up his phone and spoke into the microphone softly.

“What did he say…?”

There was a pause as Sapnap coughed awkwardly, a hesitant lump forming in his throat. “He uh…” Dream frowned at the defeatedness in the noirettes voice, his chest aching at the unfairness. “He said to leave him alone.”

Some time after that Sapnap had bounced back, but it took him a while. During that time Dream had made multiple attempts at contact himself, but all were met with silence, he couldn’t really decide if that made him feel better or worse.  
He was reassured at least by the fact that George remained somewhat active online. He pushed away the thoughts that the whole radio silence reminded him of his own time that he spent pushing away his friends, he thought to himself that the reasoning behind it had been drastically different and it didn’t compare. Or so he had convinced himself. Following that same logic, he hadn’t felt that it was necessary to tell Sapnap about how the conversation had ended. What the last important things were that George said to him. Because it didn’t mean anything. It meant nothing.

It didn’t feel right without George. It felt so incredibly wrong.  
Dream and Sapnap stayed up on call more and more often, regardless of the fact that Dreams insomnia was definitely getting worse. That was one thing that was nice, it went unsaid that it would have been nicer with George there, but the excess calls that were becoming increasingly affection-filled were comforting and almost helped fill a void of emptiness that was bugging them both. Because it was bugging them, it was bugging them a whole lot.   
Dream was happy to pretend that it wasn’t, because as Sapnap had finally understood, it hurt a lot more to always think about the fact their trio wasn’t complete.

They had settled into this quiet routine and it was helping, it was easier to be nicer with each other now, to be kinder and more caring in a way that they hadn’t been before.  
It would be good to see him. Dream didn’t know if he could continue with this same vicious cycle of concern and guilt that Sapnap helped keep at bay with reassurance and affection, without physically seeing the younger man. It was becoming harder and harder to keep the unhappiness under wraps when he told the other he wanted to hug him, knowing he couldn’t.   
He just really needed to hug him now. He really needed to hug George too.

Dream was sitting at the table in their rented house, his mom had helped set up everything they’d need and even insisted on stocking the fridge for them before she made the short drive back home. The only thing Dream had left to do was drive himself to the airport where he’d be picking up Sapnap, and George.

“Do you think he’s gonna come?” Sapnap’s disembodied voice asked from through the muffled speaker of his phone, that he had pressed tightly against his ear. He didn’t like the way the sound bounced off the walls throughout the empty house, so he opted against putting the other on speaker.

“I don’t know.” Dream shrugged, the grip on his phone tightening.

Without missing a beat Sapnap had moved on to his next question, a hopefulness in his tone that ate at the pit in Dream’s stomach. “He bought his tickets though didn’t he?”

“I think so.” He wasn’t sure. With a defeated sigh he spoke, he needed to give Sapnap something more than that. “He’ll either show up or he won’t Sap, his plain should have left 30 minutes ago and it gets in an hour after yours, he’ll either be on it or he won’t.”

“We’ll wait though, won’t we?”

“What?”

“We’ll wait at the airport, in case he does?” The younger pressed.

“Of course we will…” Dream breathed out, a heavy sigh escaping him again and the weight of doubt settling on his shoulders. He wished he had Sapnaps faith.

Dream honestly didn’t know if George would have set foot on that flight or not, and he’d convinced himself that he had turned off from it all. He purposefully ignored the fact that the night before he had laid in bed, thinking about his upcoming plans and all the things he’d need to prepare before going to the airport, and that his cheeks had become wet and reddened for an unspecified amount of time.  
He cursed Sapnaps optimism. But that wasn’t what mattered at this immediate moment.

He bounced on the balls of his feet nervously, there were so many people in the airport and he really didn’t like how crowded it was. He felt awkward and out of place despite the fact that he was one among many who were waiting for loved ones at the gate.  
He had arrived early because god forbid he arrive late, Sapnap wouldn’t stop complaining about it if he had. That being said he was going to be spending a fortune on parking, but that was okay, it was worth it.

He glanced around at the people around him as tired passengers started wobbling their way through the exit. Dream snickered to himself as he heard a particularly prominent texas accent, bordering on caricatural. No sign of the Texan he was looking for though. He hummed to himself and shoved his hands into his pockets awkwardly as he hopped through the crowd of people in an attempt at getting closer to the gate.

“Clay!” Dreams head turned suddenly at the sound of his name, his real name. He beamed from cheek to cheek at the sight of the Texan barreling towards him, his heels digging into the ground as he came to a stop, trying to prevent his trolley from barging into Dream.   
His backpack hastily dropped to the floor before he ran around the hefty luggage carrier stacked with a suitcase and a couple of boxes, meeting Dream halfway and latching on.

A laugh bubbled up from between his lips as he grasped the noirette tightly, his arms wrapping around his neck and gripping at his shoulders as they rocked back and forth adjusting to their new balance, Sapnap forcing half of his weight into the hug as his arms snaked around Dreams midsection. “Please don’t call me that.”

Sapnaps head looked up from where it had been pressed roughly against the other's chest. “Why?” He grinned manically as he squeezed Dream closer.

“It doesn’t sound right coming from you. Man, you’re so short!” Dream laughed.

Sapnap huffed but his smile stayed bright even as he pushed Dream away to look at him. “Fuck off, you Giant! You’re way taller than you said you were.” He flicked Dream's chin in retaliation for his height.

“No I’m not.” Dream snorted, hand flying up to his chin in surprise. He smiled at how easy it felt to have the other touch him. He was actually here with him right now. “You are!” He wanted to hug him again. “I am?”

“Yes!” Sapnap groaned as he dragged the other into another hug. Dream smiled to himself as he let the other latch back onto him, allowing himself to nuzzle his face against the noirettes hair, tufts of it flying everywhere, he didn’t know what it smelled of but he liked it. A hum of satisfaction escaped him as he felt Sapnaps fingers dig into his waist a little tighter.

The two sat there for an hour just watching the world go by. Distractions were everywhere; Dream’s eyes couldn’t help but lock onto the toddler with the large orange backpack running in circles around the passing holiday makers, or the vibrant blue of the fuzzy screen displaying the arrivals, the vibrancy causing his head to ache regardless of the fact he was used to spending hours on end staring at monitors at a much closer proximity. The thing that distracted him the most was Sapnap’s bouncing leg beside him. At least that was the part of Sapnap he allowed himself to focus on, he had spent the first 10 minutes staring way too much and once the shorter man had called him out on once with a teasing grin he had decided that it was necessary for his own pride to restrain himself.   
Out of the corner of his eye he glanced at the shorter man, he still hadn’t quite taken in the height difference, the bouncing was causing their bench to tremble and only ceased once Dream placed his hand on the others knee, gripping tightly at first but loosening to rub reassuring circles into the Texans clothed skin. It felt so good to be able to touch him, even if it didn't mean anything  
Sapnap jumped at first, shaking himself out of his daze and glancing back up at Dream with a grin. Dream smiled back, content that the bouncing had stopped, it was stressing him out more than he’d like to admit.

Regardless of all the things that distracted him and garnered his attention, he couldn’t draw his mind away from the thing that was really upsetting him.

With a sigh he squeezed Sapnaps knee one more time before drawing it away and stretching. “I… I think we should maybe go, Sap…”

The other glanced at him with a small frown. He could see the cogs turning in his head. Dream knew that it had been an uncomfortably long time since Georges' flight had landed, and although neither of them had vocalized it, they both knew that the thought had crossed the others mind. “Yeah, maybe…” Sapnap shrugged and made a hesitant move to stand up, swinging his bag over his shoulder and resting his hand on the handle of his suitcase. He paused and stared at his bag, head tilted down.   
Dream stood as well, following the others movements and watching him as he paused.

“I really wanted him to come, Dream…” The younger man sighed.

Dream nodded in silence, he reached a hand out to rest on Sapnap’s shoulder, rubbing gentle in an attempt at comfort. He couldn’t get over what it was like to actually touch the other, it was almost surreal.

After a moment, Sapnap curled his fingers around the handle of his luggage and looked up at Dream with a smile, stepping away from the other to start tugging himself and his bags away towards the Exit signs. Dream followed with a small smile, they were going to have a nice time, it would be okay that they weren’t all here. It didn’t feel right, but there was nothing more to do, they had tried.

They only made it a dozen or so steps.

“I hope you’re not leaving without me.” A gentle and impossibly familiar voice called from behind them, the well-spoken drawl of the accent standing out amongst the chatter around them.

Dream’s steps halted immediately, Sapnap who was a step or two ahead of him spun around to stare behind them before Dream could so much as turn his head. Just as the latters eyes landed on a short pale frame he heard the Texans' surprised cry from behind him. “George!”

There the Brit stood, a shy smile gracing the lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so uh angst but you know kinda :) those were words  
> also typos, i fear for typos but i wanted to upload this before sleep, ill be back to fix typos  
> hope you enjoyed people, this story is getting there! xxx


	9. that felt right

The three of them sat in the car in silence, Dream was driving of course and staring pointedly at the road. He couldn’t help but glance at George who was sitting besides him in the passenger's seat, the older man had yet to say anything to them of any real substance. It had been 20 minutes since they’d shoved all the luggage into the trunk and set off, they had another hour and a half left.  
He couldn’t see Sapnap but he knew he was there, sat in the middle of the row of seats in the back, he glanced up every so often at the rear view mirror and suppressed a smile at the sight of the Texans bewildered eyes darting around frantically. The air-con was blowing air around the car steadily but not doing much to discourage the heat. Dream had made the mistake of leaving the car out in the sun, he’d been in a rush due to his excitement and hadn’t bothered to find a parking spot in the shade. They now had to suffer through the boiling heat of the tin can they called a car.

“I wanted to say that I’m sorry.” Dream glanced back at George, barely hiding his surprise, but a burst of warmth bubbled up inside him at the words, but not without some trepidation.

Sapnap coughed from the back. “You’re sorry?”

The brunette in the front nodded, “Yeah, I am.” he shuffled around to lean his back against the car door to be able to look directly at Dream on his left and Sapnap behind him, who had leant forward and propped his arms on both of the front seats, giving George his full attention.

The other two said nothing as they let George muster up the courage to say the words he needed to say. “I… I’ve been awful to you guys, I’ve been really messed up lately and I’ve made you two pay for that. And it’s wrong, and I’m just… Really really sorry…” He blurted out.

Dream kept his face neutral as he listened, he had become quite good at that when it came to George recently. He really didn’t want to get upset but he could feel wetness stinging his eyes, it didn’t matter how awful the things were that he had felt towards George for the past month, these were the words he had wanted to hear. This was the conversation he had imagined so many times in the hours he spent lying in bed with sleep escaping him. 

“It’s okay Gog-”

“No but it’s not!” George cut Sapnap off. “I don’t know why I did it, I felt so bad doing it and I knew I was upsetting you too.”

“Yeah, but you weren’t feeling good and Dream and I did nothing to help you.” Sapnap reasoned. “Hell if anything I was more of a dick with you than usual.”

“No you weren’t!” George bit out, frustration spiking.

“But Sapnap’s right George, we didn’t help you…”

George huffed, hand grabbing at his hair tightly. “But I didn’t let you in the first place, it’s not your fault that I didn’t talk to you. I was being such a dick!”  
Dream hummed, eyes leaving the road briefly to look at George with a sad smile. “Yeah, you were.”

George inhaled sharply and looked away, staring at the road in front of them and watching a lady with a pram walk down the street. “Are you angry with me?”

“Of course not.” Dream sighed.

“You should be.” The brit muttered.

“That’s a lie, Dream was angry with you for a while.” Sapnap spoke up from behind, shifting about to lean further forward, head poking out between them before he leant it against the side of the headrest. Finally content at feeling the cool breeze from the air-con blowing directly across his face.

“I was?”

“You were?”

Sapnap chuckled lightly, despite the seriousness of the topic. “Hmm, yeah. But not like angry, angry, just hurt I guess.”

George deflated. “Oh.” Dream frowned at that.

“It’s okay, you know.” Sapnap reached his arm out and poked at George who grunted at the action. “You understand that it sucked and you still have the balls to apologise for it.”

Dream nodded in agreement. “We’re happy to have you back, George.” He smiled and just like the noirette he reached his arm across to rest on Georges knee. Pulling it back not long after feeling George twitch under his fingers. He smiled nonetheless, ignoring the pit in his stomach.

“Never push us away like that again.” Sapnaps voice was stern, “Please. We love you Gogs.” but pleading, a hopeful and noticeably more content grin spread across his face.

“Yeah, we love you George.”

The oldest of them smiled gently, hand making a move to turn on the radio. “I promise. I guess I love you guys too…” 

And the other two grinned at that.

When the three of them arrived home, Sapnap was the first to burst out of the car whilst complaining about cramps despite being the one to have had the most relaxed and least tiresome travel plans between him and George.  
The youngest of the trio barrelled towards the front door after Dream threw him the keys that he had demanded.  
Dream watched as George hauled the box out of the boot. His hands gripping tightly at the severely duct taped cardboard. Both he and Sapnap had brought their computer setups, Dream remembered cringing at the realisation that he was going to have to play a serious game of tetris in his car boot. Sapnap had ended up squished between a suitcase and two backpacks. Dream would have borrowed his mom's car if he’d known he would be transporting more than people and suitcases, on top of that he hadn’t been confident that George would show up.  
He looked back at Sapnap who had just reappeared in the doorway, smiling smugly.  
The brit had insisted upon hopping out of the car that he get the boxes himself, despite them being heavy and there being three of them. He was trying to compensate, Dream speculated, which wasn’t really fair in his opinion as he hadn’t acted well either.

Dream ignored the brunette's complaints as he started shifting luggage towards the entrance of their house, watching as Sapnap disappeared back through the door with a couple of suitcases behind him. “Hey George?” He called out once they reached the car again.

George stuck his head back into the trunk, reaching for a box. “Hm?” He responded as he handed the box to Dream.

“I’m sorry.”

The brit paused. “What- what for?” He turned around to face Dream with wide eyes while still bent over with his head in the boot.

Dream sighed, shifting the box so he could hold it tighter. It was heavy. “Last time we talked… I didn’t listen to you when you needed me to, and I’m sorry. I didn’t help.”

“Oh…” George looked back at the box that was shoved at the back. “Yeah. So, about that…” He sighed heavily as he grabbed onto his own box and motioned for them to start moving towards the house again. “I hope what I said won’t change anything, it doesn’t have to mean anything.”

Dream frowned. “What you said?”

“Yeah, uh… About, well- You and Sapnap…”

“About me and Sapnap?”

The brit stopped suddenly and stared up at him pleadingly. “Dream, don’t make me say it again. Please.” He said, making eye contact briefly before his eyes darted away nervously.

With a shake of his head, Dream stuttered with confusion. “I- George, I’m sorry but I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Dream…”

“George…” He answered back, dragging the others' name out in the same way George had.

The shorter man looked back at him with a frown and genuine confusion. His mouth fell open slightly as he mulled it over in his head. “...You didn’t read into it.” George announced in astonishment.

“Read into what?” Dream was still none the wiser. “George?”

George shook his head with a disbelieving laugh as he made a move to walk forward again. “Wow Dream, I- You can’t be serious.”

“George! Seriously, what?”

“The argument we had.” George supplied, turning back around to face the blond. Expecting some sort of realisation.

“You said you felt unlovable. Yeah...”

The shorter man’s eyebrows shot up as it clicked. “Wow.”

“What?” Dream exclaimed, a confused laugh bubbling up his throat as he looked back at the brit who was smiling gently at him.

“Holy shit, you are dumb.” George shook his head a final time, turning his back on the floridian again as he walked into the house. Dream continued to frown to himself as he tried to think it through. If it didn’t mean anything then why was it so surprising that he didn’t understand what George was trying to say?

Dream had planned on showing them around but by the time he checked that everything had been brought into the house and that the car was locked, Sapnap had already called dibs on one of the empty upstairs rooms and directed George towards the stash of chips in the kitchen cabinet. Dream smiled at the discovery, he hadn’t even known those were there. He’d have to call his mom later and thank her again. She was obviously way more prepared than Dream could have ever hoped to be.

For the next couple of hours they ran rampant around the house, George suggested that it would be a good idea that they start getting their setups ready and all plugged in so that they’d be prepared for whenever they felt like streaming or recording.  
Thankfully there hadn’t been too much confusion between whose belongings were whose; Sapnaps setup had been boxed far more lovingly and carefully than Georges, and by lovingly that meant that he had duct taped every square inch of the cardboard box to within an inch of its life. Dream and George stood in the doorway of Sapnaps chosen room upstairs and snickered away at the sight of the youngest trying desperately to hack away at the mass of tape with a blunt kitchen knife.

The house wasn’t large by any means but it wasn’t small enough to be cramped for the three of them, not that that would have been an issue given they had been loitering around each other continuously since their arrival. Becoming predictably inseparable and not daring to let the others out of their sight. Rarely being in a room without one of the others finding some excuse to follow them in.  
Dream took note of the fact that Sapnap would inch closer to him no matter what he was doing, sometimes being so close to the other that he could feel his body heat radiating from the shorter man without them ever actually touching.  
Patches on the other hand, was not as happy. She scuttled away and hid from the masses of luggage being shifted around the house and the three boys running around in excitement. Sapnap had promised to come for her later, no cat was to be exempt from his affection.

George rejoiced at the news that Dream had already set up his Netflix account on the television downstairs in the living room and later in the evening, beckoned Sapnap over to the couch so the two could start scrolling through movies. It was their first night and they were all settling into their new space together. Dream reasoned that it was acceptable for them to do jackshit for now, with his friends here, it would be great regardless of what they were doing.

“C’mere you.” Sapnap motioned for Dream to join them on the couch, the youngest backed himself up into the corner next to the arm rest and created a space for Dream to sit besides him, where the other could pull him to his side.

Dream grinned at Sapnaps demands; contact bordering on cuddles. He was almost surprised it had taken him this long given how insistent he had been on proximity all day. “I’m too big for this.” He stated as Sapnap manoeuvered him into an awkward scrunched up position in the center of the couch with his legs tucked under himself at an uncomfortable angle.

“You’re too damn tall is what you are!”

“For fuck sake guys. Dream just- Put your legs over here, yeah like that.” George huffed with a roll of his eyes. Dream found himself curled up next to Sap with his head resting on the Texans chest and his legs strewn across George's lap. Sapnap grinned with delight, content in this position where he could now grasp the blond closer to him, his hands danced over the others arm, fingers dragging across the skin in soothing circular motions causing Dream to hum in contentment.

“You okay over there Gogy?” Dream asked, peering over at the brunette who held the remote, his other hand rested on the floridians legs that were splayed across him haphazardly, absentmindedly playing with the blonds leg hair.

George looked back at him, eyes tearing away from the Netflix homepage to instead fall on the other two huddled together comfortably. His eyes softened a little at the sight and a puff of air seemed to escape him. “It’s so weird seeing you guys like this.” He muttered.  
Dream stared back at him, his eyes widening a little but it was dark in the room. Sapnap turned his head towards the Brit at the sound of his quiet words.

“You’ve never seen us together any other way.”

“True.” George shook his head and looked back to the television and kept scrolling. “It's just different is all.”

Dream watched the other, he couldn’t see much in the dark but the light emitted from the screen glowed and illuminated the brunette's profile. The white light made him look paler than he actually was, it pronounced the shadows formed by the sharp edges that made up the Brits face.  
He leaned back with a lazy smile as he clicked play on some movie. Dream hadn’t been paying attention, too caught up in the comforting warmth of Sapnap to his side, the feeling of the others breathing gently causing him to rise and fall alongside him. The blond reached a hand out, gently tapping on the pale man's arm to get his attention.

George rolled his eyes but nonetheless agreed to the taller man's silent request. The hopeful look in his eyes and the delicate smile that graced his lips forcing the repressed tingling feeling in his chest to warm him from the inside out. George wished the other wasn’t so naive but he gave in to his wishes anyway. He couldn’t find it in himself to deny himself this moment with his friends. He placed his hand in Dreams gingerly, allowing the other to link their fingers together.  
He shared a look with the texan on the other side of the couch, the latter glancing at the interlocked fingers of his friends before smiling at George and looking back at the movie.

By the time the movie had ended, George was flat out. It would only have been about 1 in the morning in Florida but the different time zone and jet lag had won over the Brit. Sapnap too was tired from the travelling but refused to acknowledge he was. After some time Dream nudged George awake, smiling warmly at the drowsy yawn made by the sleep deprived man whom he then helped up to his room. Arm wrapped around the others waist despite his complaints that he could walk to his room alone.

George had grunted at him upon the arrival in front of his bedroom door, a small sigh of contempt escaping him as Dream slid his arm out from under the other. Dream chuckled quietly to himself as George leaned his head against his chest, the shorter man groaning with fatigue and making a feeble attempt at getting closer to the warmth in front of him. God, he was cute.  
Dream pushed the door open and with a small bout of dejection when he detached George from where he was pressed against him, the others breath warming him further where it seeped through his t-shirt. Directed by his shoulders, the exhausted Brit landed on his bed fully dressed and curled up immediately upon contact with the inviting softness of the mattress. Dream walked away after shutting the door behind him, his cheeks tainted the slightest pink.

He walked back to his own room downstairs after bickering back and forth with the texan for five minutes about whether or not he should go to bed. The answer was yes, Sapnap was exhausted and so he went to bed.  
The blond smiled to himself as he realised that this is where Patches had run off to, the cat had made a comfortable spot for herself on Dreams bed. It occurred to him that this was the only room they hadn’t been coming in and out of all day, sometimes his cat was just as antisocial as he was, on top of that she was just as sociable, especially knowing that at some point she would bounce back and demand attention from all three of them. She was an attention whore but she deserved every second of it.

There wasn’t a ceiling fan in Dreams room and he wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about it. He turned off the lights except for the small lamp next to his bed. The light just didn’t bounce around his room the same way and the shadows didn’t move as much. It had been a long time since he slept in a room that wasn’t his childhood room, it was a weird feeling but one that he was more than willing to put up with given the rewards. Sapnap and George were asleep upstairs, closer to him than they had ever been before. That felt right.

Closing his eyes, he lay on his bed and listened to the silence while he let the thoughts float around in his head aimlessly, he felt a little bit at peace.

His eyes popped open at the sound of someone creeping down the stairs and he laughed to himself, he should have known there was no point in arguing with Sapnap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alright guys, the next chapter is hella saucy. this is an "explicit" story and lets be honest there hasn't been much of that...  
> in this house we stan plot with porn, because we've accidentally ended up with very limited doses...  
> my question is, how soon do you want the next chapter??
> 
> also thank you guys so much for all the support on this shitty little story, honestly makes my day and i'm so excited when i see how some of you get hyped. honestly means the world
> 
> love love, hope you all enjoyed x


	10. on your knees for me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and here is the smut you all asked for  
> enjoy x

Dreams head snapped up at the sound of his door creaking open, a curiosity tugged at the corners of his lips as he watched the shorter but bulkier man make an attempt at discretely sliding through the door to his bedroom. “Sapnap?” Dream laughed. “What the hell? Dude, go to bed, you’re exhausted.”

Dream pushed himself up and turned around so he could sit at the edge of his bed, watching Sapnap as he gently pushed the door shut. Patches stood up in retaliation at the realisation that a new person had entered the room, she promptly jumped away from her spot at Dreams side and crawled under the bed.

Sapnap turned in one swift motion and before he had even made his way across the room towards the blond, he was whisper-yelling at him defensively. “Fuck no, I’ve waited months to see you. You think I’m gonna settle with a few cuddles on our first night together?” Dream grinned in response.

The noirette stood in front of Dream, placing himself between the others legs and forcing the floridian to look up at him. Although given their height difference, even when sitting down Dream didn’t have to tilt his head upwards that much in order to look the other in the eye.  
Sapnap smiled down at him, bringing his hands up to hold the others face, his thumbs brushing over the scattering of freckles that covered lightly tanned cheeks. Dream grinned up at him as he gently clasped his hands around Sapnaps wrists, his toothy smile settling into something calmer and more relaxed as he hummed in contentment, the younger traced gentle lines with his index and forefingers across the curves of his face.  
Fingers trailed down the bridge of his nose to the tip, across his cheek as it danced over the soft skin, connecting the freckles along the way. Edging down the line of his jaw slowly, arriving at his chin and finally reaching the corner of his mouth.  
Dream had closed his eyes as he let himself enjoy the sensation of Sapnaps wandering fingers, allowing the other to explore the face he hadn’t yet been able to map out. A content sigh escaped him and filled the silence.

He chuckled quietly as he felt Sapnap gently blow warm air across his face, he blinked his eyes open just to see the noirette staring back at him with an infectious smile, his dark eyes looking over the blonds features with a warmth that brought the jittery feelings from earlier back with full force.  
Sapnaps finger traced over the bow of his lip delicately, brushing against the soft skin with curiosity before falling to Dream's bottom lip where he rested it, finger pressing against the plumpness delightedly. With a spark of mischief, Dream darted his tongue out quickly to lick at the salty tip of Sapnaps finger. The other grinned back at him with approval, an idea glinting in his eyes.  
Sapnap hastily moved his hands away to grip at the nape of the older man's neck instead, pulling him closer and tilting his head as he leant down, brushing his lips against Dreams playfully. Heat rose from Dream's stomach to his chest at the feeling of Sapnaps mouth pressed against his own. He let out a quiet whimper.

Sapnap pulled back with a soft laugh, right hand reaching up to brush Dreams hair out of his face and resting there as he leant down again to kiss the blond. The floridian groaned at the feeling of the man standing above him tugging his hair roughly, causing a shiver to run down his spine as the other licked into his mouth eagerly. 

They parted suddenly. Dream and Sapnap laughed and groaned respectively at the sound of the door shaking in the frame, Patches scratching at the bottom as she frantically tried to make her escape. The poor cat was discovering that there was no escape for her anywhere.

“Patches, girl! Why are you cockblocking me like this?” Sapnap whined as Dream pushed him away so he could stand up to go let the unhappy cat out of the room.

“Leave her alone, she's having a tough day.” He tutted as he pressed the door shut again, careful to not close it too loudly even though the Brit upstairs was probably sleeping so soundly he wouldn’t hear a thing anyway.

Sapnap sat on the edge of bed, now occupying Dreams old spot. “So am I.”

“Yeah, sure.” Dream huffed out a laugh as he came to stand in front of Sapnap, raising an eyebrow as he looked down at the texan sitting in his stolen spot.

With another idea brewing in the back of his mind, Sapnap grinned up at the tall blond before he reached out for him. His hands latched on the others hips, pulling him forward to stand between his legs. Smiling with victory at the role reversal.  
Dream rolled his eyes but allowed the noirette to pull him down into another kiss, this time harsher. Sapnap slipped his hand under Dream’s shirt, fingers tracing nonsensical patterns over his hip bone. The blond pulled away slightly and laughed lightly because of how ticklish it felt. His laugh made Sapnap feel dizzy and he bit on his partners bottom lip gently in complaint, his tongue swiping over the reddened lip, and soon he was licking into the others mouth.  
Dream groaned, bringing his hands up to rest on Sapnaps shoulder, fingers dipping under the collar of his shirt to rub circles over any available skin in response to Sapnaps own affectionate touches. Their noses bumped briefly as the texan surged forward a little further, teeth clacking before Sapnap ran his tongue over Dreams.

Dream gasped when Sapnap pushed him, tearing his lips away from the other harshly with a gross wet sound, a mischievous grin full of rude ideas smiled back at him as the other placed his hand on his shoulders before he shoved him down. Dreams legs were already weak from being hunched over to kiss the texan, the force caused his legs to give in and he landed on his knees.  
Realisation dawned on him with a knowing smile as he looked up at the noirette from between his legs. The blonds hands fell to Sapnaps thighs where he began rubbing back and forth over the thick grey material. Fingers digging in meanly every so often, nails scratching at the skin even through the fabric.

The younger man brought his hand back to Dream’s face, stroking it as he had before. His fingers trailed under his chin and settled in the dip just below where his jaw ended, he pressed in a little, watching with satisfaction at the way his partner's eyes slid closed and a gentle groan rattled in his throat. He dug his finger in enough to watch the others brows crease with the slight pain before retracting his fingers.

Dream looked back at him with curiosity, his mouth parting slightly. Sapnap’s smile widened as he brought his thumb to Dreams mouth, resting it between the others lips. Dream looked up at him slyly, sucking on the tip as his hands wandered up tense thighs, digging in again harshly at the crease.  
His eyes glanced at Sapnaps lap where his bulge was visible through the tented folds of his sweatpants. The texan watched as the other looked down, quickly withdrawing the tip of his thumb from between Dreams wet lips and instead shoving his fingers in. Dream choked at the sudden and more aggressive intrusion, wide eyes snapping up to look at the other.

“I told you I’d get you on your knees for me, baby boy.” The younger man bent down slightly and whispered, shoving his fingers into the other's mouth further. Dream gagged and started sucking, he closed his eyes and concentrated on the feeling of Sapnaps two fingers pressing down roughly, he felt his mouth start to pool with spit.

“Look at you, you’re gagging for it.” Dream stared up at him lazily, green eyes dark and pleading as his hands twitched towards Sapnaps bulge.

Sapnap stroked his fingers against the blonds tongue encouragingly, eliciting a moan from him before he tugged at the hem of his sweatpants. When the noirette pressed down on his tongue again he pulled down the other's sweats, releasing Sapnaps already swollen member.

A lewd gurgling noise escaped Dreams lips from around the intruding digits, eager fingers reached for Sapnaps prick, grasping at the base and tugging a few times. With a wanton moan Sapnap pulled his fingers back, spit slipped down the dishevelled man's chin.   
The sight was obscene, wide glassy eyes stared back at him. He licked his plump red lips with heavy breaths, taking in as much oxygen as he could before diving forward and licking a stripe up Sapnaps prick. He stopped at the tip and suckled, tongue licking at the slit enthusiastically.

Sapnaps hand fell to the floridian's blond locks, fingers entwined and tugging harshly, eliciting a moan from the man on his knees before him that vibrated through him, a filthy moan falling from the noirettes lips.

“You’re so good to me Dream, so so good.”

Another hum of contentment shook him, the blond opening his mouth wider to start sucking more of the leaking cock into his mouth.

The noirette brought his hand down to stroke at the other's face, stroking over his cheek. “So eager to please, my pretty boy.” He panted breathily at the feeling of the blond taking him down to the base and hollowing his mouth, just resting there for a moment as Sapnap twitched beneath him, resisting the urge to buck up. Dream took pity on him after a final tug of his hair and started slowly bobbing his head with a slow rhythmic tempo, building up the pressure.

He licked another stripe up the vein on the underside of the Texans leaking member, tongue playing with the tip mercilessly before he engulfed him again. His nose nestled in amongst the younger man's pubes before he picked up the pace, tongue flicking with every movement.

Sapnaps grip in the others' hair tightened suddenly, to the extent that Dream winced at the pain. “Dream. Dre- Slow down, I’m gonna-” He was cut off with a groan as long fingers stroked at the base of his cock, sizzling heat in his abdomen growing dangerously close with a particularly pleasurable flick of the others tongue.

The floridian looked up at him, cheeks flushed and eyes wide but ultimately full of cunning desire, a glint of delight behind bright, green eyes. 

He bobbed his head a final time before lifting his head, the tip of Sapnaps cock leaving Dreams mouth with a lewd squelch. The blond looked down at his good work with a satisfied smirk, he teasingly blew warm air over the tip of the Texans leaking cock, a shudder rattling him in response.

“God, Dream… C’mere.” Sapnap tapped his arm, shifting backwards a little.

He pulled him up, dragging him closer and bringing his legs to straddle his thighs. Dream immediately pushing forward to roll his hips, both groaned at the sensation of their erections rubbing together. Dream became more desperate, leaning forward, his tongue slipped into the noirettes mouth, running it across his teeth.   
Sapnap was having none of that though as he sucked the tip of his tongue, massaging it against his own until they had to break apart, lungs desperate for the air they were being deprived of.

“Pants, off.” Sapnaps voice was husky and rough as he tugged off his shirt, kicking his sweatpants off and watching as Dream made quick work of his own clothes.

“Shit, Sapnap.” Dream whimpered as the shorter man pulled him back on top of him, hips grinding upwards, his hands grabbed at his hips, tugging their throbbing pricks together roughly, eliciting a moan from both of them. Sapnap left sloppy kisses over his jaw, he licked at the spot he had pressed on earlier before trailing down to the floridians neck. Biting and sucking as he left blooming marks on the lightly tanned skin alongside the array of freckles and small blemishes. Dream’s hands were urgent, tangled in Sapnaps hair and tugging.

Sapnap grew frustrated at the lack of friction and rolled them, so that Dream had his back pressed to the mattress with Sapnap caging him in, hands grabbing at his waist bruisingly. He pressed his hips against the other with a more brutal pace, lips leaving a trail of kisses over the blonds neck before biting down harshly, drawing a cry from the others lips. “W-wonder if George can hear, he’d be lucky. Bet he’d be driven crazy by how-” Sapnap was cut off by a loud groan. “How filthy you sound.”

His breath hitched at Sapnaps words while he rutted against him, “Wh-what?” he could feel him tremble as he thrust their hips together. Sapnap laughed down at him, a triumphant smile. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you Dream?”

He panted in response, brows knitting together. How did he know? “Sapnap, I-”

“You thought I didn’t notice how you always purposefully avoid the stories that involve him? We both know it wasn’t out of Respect to George. You always looked way too nervous for that…” 

Dream looked back on the times he and Sapnap had read together. He couldn’t tell if their current predicament made these memories easier or worse to handle.

“Those pretty lips of his, bet you’re curious about what they could do...”

Dream whimpered, eyes sliding shut as a particularly hard thrust had his prick throbbing. “You sound- Ah, pretty curious yourself.”

Sapnap leaned up to look down at the blond with an adoring smile, eyes black with desire, before he ducked down to bite at Dreams neck again, enlarging his collection of purpling blemishes. Dream whined in response and wrapped his legs around Sapnaps hips, bringing the other closer. With every passing second, Sapnap sped up, Dream bucking his hips upwards to meet him with more urgency, tightening his legs around the other as they got closer to the edge.

The blonds hands were everywhere; cupping his jaw with each kiss, running down his chest and tickling up his sides, exploring the texans body relentlessly. His cries made Sapnaps skin prickle and shiver while his head felt dizzy with pleasure as he panted against Dream's neck. “Fuck. Fuck Sap, I’m-” The older man cried out his name urgently, back arched and head thrown back.  
Sapnap thrust desperately, pounding his hips against him, erections rubbing as Dream burned his name into his skin as Dream fell over the edge with Sapnap not long behind him, spunk spilling over them both and covering their chests between them.

They were both still panting as the noirette collapsed down, bearing his weight on his elbows and nuzzling into the floridians bruising neck.

Dream smiled at the feeling of the younger man's goosebumps under the pads of his fingers, he traced shapes and outlined the curves of his bare skin as he ran his hands over the other’s back. Sapnap shuddered under his touch, pulling himself closer into the warmth of the blond's body, he pressed a soft, lazy kiss to his collarbone and angled his sleepy face to look up at his.

His eyes scanned over the soft freckled features, tracing his face once again as he tried to memorise the composition of it. Dream gave him a tired smile, and so he kissed him gently one more time before he finally gave in to his exhaustion, this time utterly worn out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all asked so nicely and since this story just hit 1000 kudos (thank you so fucking much, this is insaneeeeee i am in awe guys, this dogshit story did not deserve 1k kudos <3) here is your chapter of dreamnap smut
> 
> the double upload this weekend is my treat to you, thank you for all the support you lovely people xxxx  
> now back to the schedule that results in not posting an update for another 2 weeks :) that's a joke, don't worry (it might not be (sorry))
> 
> I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED let me know what you thinkkkk  
> next up more angst, fluffy couchesque scenes, and eventual smut, cause you know...


	11. you should have just said

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> an hour ago i decided; you know what? lets reread the next chapter and see if i can clean it up a little before i add anything new! you know what i did? i finished the chapter! if i was wiser i would probably wait till tomorrow to post it, cause i could take more time, maybe clean things up nicely... but you know what else? for me, it is tomorrow! so y'all get a chapter!
> 
> i am very tired and i'm about to pass out, so i hope this is still up to scratch  
> this story was initially meant to be like, 10 chapters, but we're getting closer to 15 at this point. that information is useless to you but i'm rambling and someone might read it
> 
> anyway, enjoy! thank you again for all the support cause it absolutely does mean the world to me <3 and i'll see you all around, this time next upload might actually be in 2 weeks because the next chapters have not been started at all, but at least the plan is in motion...
> 
> g'night people (at least for me), love love xxx

Dream awoke feeling hot and uncomfortably sticky but the feeling of being snug and secure overpowered that. His eyes strained as he opened them, and he wasn’t surprised by that because he hadn’t closed his blinds last night.  
He looked up at the sleeping noiret, a content smile warming his face. He wiggled in the other's arms just to receive a groan of complaint in response and he was held tighter. Somehow he had managed to latch himself onto Sapnap with his face pressed to the others chest, with his arms and legs wrapped around the shorter man, drawing him closer. He revelled in the fact that the texan hadn’t been put off by Dream's clinginess, rejoicing in the cuddles himself by wrapping his arms around the other in return.  
Dream closed his eyes for a beat, relaxing back into the warmth of his covers and the soft but sturdy arms that held him in place. He could hear Sapnaps heartbeat, he could feel the low drumming radiate through to him, harmonising with the sound of his own blood pulsing in his ears. It was all so quiet. 

Thoughts whirled around in his head as his mind slowly woke up despite his decision to stay and to remain under the protection of his quilt and tucked away securely in the younger man's arms. His hand started to wander over the unclothed expanse of olive skin as he caressed Sapnaps back. His fingers found the noirets lower back, dancing across the soft skin and watching as he shivered.  
Dream chuckled to himself quietly, his hands settling and easing their teasing motions.  
He closed his eyes again, pressing his face to the others chest, lips brushing over the softness of Sapnaps torso. He smiled against his skin as he heard the sleepy man hum, drawing him closer again and nuzzling his face in the blonds hair.

As much as he wanted to fight it, Sapnaps embrace was becoming unbearably warm and Dream was often a restless person in the morning. His mind was wide awake and his muscles were twitching to move, his knees ached a little and he felt in desperate need of a shower. He also felt really hungry, which was a rarity for him but given last night's activities he wasn’t surprised that his body was demanding food.  
With reluctant decisiveness he started pulling away from the Texans hold but not without some struggle. Initially, he had been the one to latch on but with a disgruntled whine, Sapnap coaxed him closer for a brief moment. The affection-driven noiret pressed his face to Dreams almost wavy blond locks again, inhaling deeply and sighing in contentment.

The floridian sighed, allowing Sapnap a few more moments of warmth as he himself had already indulged. It was only fair. “Sapnap…” He called out gently.

“Mean…” Dream laughed at the younger man's complaint as he let him go.

Dream pulled himself out of the bed, glancing at Sapnap who immediately rolled over onto his stomach, his entire being shifting to spread out across the centre of the bed, face shoved into the pillows. The taller man snickered to himself as he shuffled around the room picking up various clothing items and depositing them on his desk chair before he picked out his shirt from the previous day and a fresh pair of boxers.

He pulled the door shut behind him, gently enough to not make a noise. Looking up, he was met with warm brown eyes staring back at him from across the room in the kitchen. “Hey, I expected you to sleep-in past midday, at least.”

George smiled back at him softly. “Yeah I know, but it's like 4 oclock in the UK so… You know, jet lag.” He supplied, turning his back on the other as he looked back towards the boiling kettle. The brunet was dressed in far more layers than Dream, his hoodie and sweatpants contrasted with his t-shirt and lack of pants.

“Yeah that's fair enough. Are you cold?” The blond hummed, arriving in the kitchen.

“Ah, well kinda. Not used to the AC.”

Dream nodded in response and silently turned it down a little, the air conditioning was on a pretty cool setting after all and despite the brit being accustomed to colder temperatures it was still an adjustment the floridian wouldn’t question. It was too early in the morning to tease their lack of civility.

It didn’t really matter to him that it was 11 o’clock, Dream wanted to eat cereal anyway and so he set about, manoeuvering around the kitchen, careful not to bump into George. Not long after his arrival Patches made her grand entrance as well. The cat had decidedly still not warmed up to the two strange boys in this foreign house alongside her owner, especially not since last night's disruption, but that wasn’t enough to dissuade her from demanding food.  
The tabby cat yowled at him. She was used to being fed earlier in the day.

From behind him he heard the brunet shuffling loudly. “Um. I take it you, uh… You hung out with Sap?” George coughed awkwardly. “Last night…”

Dreams head snapped up to look at the shorter man who was shifting awkwardly next to the kitchen counter. “Uh, what makes you say that?” He couldn’t help but soften as he looked at the gentle man before him, he felt privileged to see George when his warm brown eyes were puffy from sleep and he was mildly unkempt with tufts of brown hair flying out at strange angles. He looked pretty even when he was a mess.

He wasn’t looking at him to begin with, but he turned his head away from the blond further, eyes locking onto the dripping tap instead. “Well- I’m not really sure, but you kinda have a massive fucking bruise on your neck.”

“Oh shit.” Dream cussed, eyes widening as he ran off to grab his phone and angled the camera at his neck as he walked back into the small kitchen where the light was better, he let out a red-faced cry. A choked off gagging noise getting caught in his throat. How could he have forgotten about that. He had been fully aware of the txan latching onto his skin last night, peppering his neck with kisses. He usually had the foresight to remember he bruised easily.

George kept his back turned to him and began pouring boiling water in a mag. “You two, are masters of discretion.” He shook his head and made an awkward attempt at joking in an aim to ease the mood. Dream gawked at the image staring back at him on his screen, he was paying the price for his own forgetfulness.

A sudden thought occurred to him. “You uh, didn’t hear us last night did you…?” He glanced up at George timidly. Sapnap had asked the question last night, but he hadn’t given it any real thought until now. He was already embarrassed by Georges unease at just the sight of the painfully noticeable discolorations, the purple and blue hues that dotted his skin. He didn’t even want to imagine the awkwardness of George having actually heard them last night. But he had to know.

The brit was very much focused on his tea bag, the flimsy paper being dunked more times than necessary. “Yeah, um no. I didn’t.”

“Bummer.” Sapnap called out to the other two as he trudged out of Dream's bedroom door. George's eyes widened as they snapped to the dishevelled looking Texan. The third member of their trio wandered into the kitchen with an absent-minded look despite the fact that he was clearly paying attention to their conversation. He made a beeline for the fridge but was promptly cut off by Dream who made a move to stand in the noirets way, looming over him.

“Sapnap!” Dream rounded on the other, causing him to almost slam into the significantly taller man's tensed frame. “What the fuck did you do?”

Sapnap finally looked at him, the grin on his face falling a little in realisation. “...Oh wow.” His eyes locked onto the mass of purpling blemishes that covered the pale skin of the floridian's freckled neck. “Thats pretty bad.”

“‘Pretty bad’! Fucking shit, Sap.” Dream mocked.

“What did you do to him?” George called from besides them, eyes lingering on the discoloured marks with a peculiar look. His embarrassment obviously not sufficient to ease his curiosity, or as Dream had assumed, to further mock him.

Sapnaps head swivelled to grin at the brunet. “Wouldn’t you like to know, sleepy boy.”

With an exaggerated groan, Dream rubbed at his eyes before letting his hands drop to his sides. “Sapnap, I swear to god.”

He was answered with a singular quirked brow. “You weren’t complaining last night.” To which the blond glared. Motherfucker. Sapnap shrugged off the blonds peeved stares, a smug smile playing on his lips as he turned away, attention suddenly drawn to the still hot kettle that was steaming on the counter next to Georges grossly strong mug of tea.

The brit jumped at the opportunity to change the subject. “Right. Uh, coffee? Anyone?” Sapnap nodded enthusiastically, going to pull his own mug out of a cabinet while he continued to ignore the fuming floridian.

“I need to shower.” Dream grumbled, giving up on his annoyance, to a certain extent.

Sapnap turned to face him again, mug in one hand while he stirred with the other. “Yeah, me too.” He looked the blond up and down with a speculative look, clearly having come to a decision. “I’ll shower after you, you got the brunt of it.” Sapnap laughed, waving the spoon around as he made a crude hand gesture to further illustrate his point.

A teaspoon clattered against the counter behind them. “Guys, please. There are things I don’t want to hear.” George groaned, swiveling around and slamming his hands on the counter. That had to have stung.

Sapnap opened a kitchen cabinet, pulling out the cereal Dream had long since forgotten about. “Not sure I believe you Gogs.” He teased. Dream glanced at the brunet again. He was staring straight ahead, jaw clenched.

“Leave him alone Sapnap. I’ll be done in 15.” Dream sighed, turning his back on the two shorter men and wandering down the corridor towards the stairs.

After a few days Dream's mom had called to check up on them, she had been exchanging texts with her son casually over the past few days but the woman had finally decided that it was time Dream formally introduced his two best friends to her. His sister had also expressed interest and at that point Dream felt he couldn’t deny them this meeting.  
It hadn’t taken much convincing, if any at all, and so that evening the three of them clambered into the car made the short drive down to Dreams childhood home.

Once they arrived, Dream sort of lost track of the pair as they were all swept up by his family. It was a strange feeling to see his family and friends together, interacting with one another. They were two very separate groups of people in his life of almost equal importance but he had never thought of the two intermingling. For as long as he had known he wanted to meet Sapnap and George, he had thought that someday this event would come, but that didn’t change the fact that he’d never given the idea any real space in his mind. It was surreal to say the least.

His mom settled into the motions of interrogating George on his britishness, not being able to keep her curiosity at bay, but nevertheless the brit answered every question with a smile and once all that was out of the way, they cheerfully discussed little Clay in his youth.  
That was one thing that was incredibly strange to him; his friends called him Dream and his family called him Clay. He smiled as he watched George stutter over his name as he spoke to his mom, the name ‘Clay’ sounding foreign on his lips and the brunet couldn’t quite make the name sound naturel, not in the same way that it rolled off his mother's tongue.  
At the other end of the table, Sapnap had managed to get himself caught in a never-ending debate with his sister that Dream had refused to take part in, despite the pleading looks the texan was shooting his way.

After dinner the three had some time to spare before they had to drive home. They spent some time with Dreams family in the living room for a while but after a while Dreams younger brother had to be sent to bed, the younger boy was full of energy from the excess of people in his home so it was a struggle convincing him. His mom had had to go upstairs with him to get him to settle down, but his brother had requested Dream go upstairs with him to tuck him in. Dream obliged because it was his brother.  
As he walked back downstairs with his mom they passed his bedroom door. Dreams head turned to look out of principle, his mom caught the movement and under the condition that they were quiet, she suggested that he show his room to his friends.  
Dream thought about it and once he arrived downstairs, he beckoned Sapnap and George to follow him, this time he did save Sapnap from a debate with his sisters.

The two eagerly followed, bickering back and forth in hushed whispers as they walked down the upstairs corridor, keeping to their promise of silence as to not trigger another hyper outburst from the younger brother down the hall. Neither Dream nor Sapnap had commented on it but between silent looks and glances sent the other’s way, they had come to a mutual understanding that Georges behaviour had been odd.  
For a few days he had been reserved with them, an uncomfortable reminder of the weeks they had spent mulling over George's absence. However in the presence of other people, the aloof brit seemed to have relaxed, he was once again sociable and cheerful with them. The other two didn’t know how long this would last but they wanted to enjoy every moment with a happy George as much as they could.

Dream wandered in first, pushing the door open gently and flicking the switch to illuminate the room. He hadn’t seen it for a few days but unsurprisingly it was the same as when he had left it. Before he could step any further into his childhood space, Sapnap and George burst past him.  
He spun around watching as the other two landed on his bed and cheered childishly. Sapnap cried out victoriously that he had been the first to lie on Dreams bed and George had shoved him off the side in protest.   
A laugh bubbled up his chest and he began wheezing at the sight of the youngest man desperately scrambling to get on the bed but being pushed back by Georges swinging kicks, proclaiming himself as victor as he stood upright on the bed, bouncing slightly with an energized grin.

He pulled himself up from where he had been doubled over, laughing by the door, finally closing the door behind them and wandering over to his bed. In the back of his mind he recognised that they were already not being quiet in the slightest, and was thankful for the fact that they were staying in a completely different house 20 minutes away. For now though, the soundproofing he had covering his wall would have to be enough to not disturb his brother or upset his mom, he hoped.  
With a carefree smile he tugged on George's sleeve, the brit looking down at him gleefully as he stood a solid 2 feet taller than the blond. “C’mon George, stop bullying him.”

From the floor Dream and George heard the noiret cheering. Sapnap was on his knees at the foot of the bed with his hands planted on the edge determinedly, a shameless grin spreading across his face as he looked up at the older two, dark hair falling in his eyes.  
Dream shook his head with a smile, looking back to George as he thread his fingers through Sapnaps soft hair.  
The brit pouted at Dreams request. “He elbowed me, I’m within my rights.”

“Yeah cause you landed on top of me!”

“Shut. Up. Sapitus Napitus, I did not.” George's light laugh rang like a bell in the air, warming their chests as their eyes caught. Dream grinned at Sapnap as the memory flooded back to them both, he mouthed the words to the other silently, watching as the Texans eyes glared back at him. Shut up, Dream.

In retaliation, Sapnaps hands darted out to grab out the brunet's bare ankles, fingers curling around the thin joint deftly before tugging harshly. George screeched in surprise as he came tumbling down, arms flailing as he handed on the mattress with a bounce. Laughter erupted around them as Sapnap took the opportunity to scramble atop the bed, bed sheets and quilt long since messed up as the eldest started wrestling the other off of him.

“Girls, girls, please.” Dream wheezed. “You can both sit on the bed, stop fighting.”

The blond laughed quietly as his comment went unanswered by the other two who were rolling about and huffing with flailing limbs as they tried hopelessly to push the other off the edge. Dream wasn’t sure when the other two had acquired so much energy but a warm laugh escaped him again as he watched the other two bickering.  
He stepped away from them for a moment to turn on his various lamps, his bedside, his desk, and the led wall sign. He turned off the ceiling light and he hummed in contentment at the comfortable glow of his room, ceiling fan whirring lazily, causing the familiar dancing shadows to bounce around the gently illuminated space.

Sapnap and George stilled as the ceiling light was switched off, heads snapping to face the floridian in question as the room around them suddenly became darker. Sapnap opened his mouth to speak but before he could utter a word George flipped them, shouting in success.

A dangerous thought crossed Dream's mind as his eyes trailed over his two friends. George may have been ignorant to the dubious way he was sat on top of the flushed texan, but Dream wasn’t. His knees were bent either side of the bulkier man and his lower half was seated comfortably in the others lap. Sapnap grinned crookedly at the way he had suddenly found himself being straddled by the lighter man.  
He pushed himself up abruptly, arriving face to face with George whose eyes widened at the sudden proximity, their noses touching and heavy breaths intermingling as they finally paused their struggling.  
George swayed backwards, almost being thrown off of the noirets lap before he grabbed at Sapnaps shirt, hands braced on his shoulders to stop himself from toppling off.

“You like this position, Gogs?” Sapnap teased.

Dream watched with curiosity as the older man huffed, warmth creeping up his neck before he used his clenched hands to shove Sapnap back. The Texans shoulders hit the mattress and he gazed up at the brunet straddling him with a dazed smile. “You should have just said.” He snickered, hips bucking up teasingly. Dreams eyes widened at the same time as Georges, as the latter felt the unexpected thrust rocking him forward, his hands landing on Sapnaps torso to brace himself.

George's head fell, short brown hair not quite long enough to hide his clenched eyes and flushed cheeks. The floridian stilled and watched from the sidelines as the following silence encompassed them, he caught eyes with a wide-eyed Sapnap and he shook his head silently. You couldn’t help yourself, could you.

“Don’t flatter yourself.” Dreams eyes snapped to the previously silent brunet just in time to watch him grind down into Sapnaps lap, eliciting a shocked gasp from the latter, before he hastily detached himself from the blushing noiret. George brushed past him in silence and darted down the corridor before Dream heard the gentle footfall on the stairs. His head turned back to his bed as soon as he couldn’t hear Georges rushed steps anymore.

Sapnap stared back at him, mouth agape. “Did you see that?” He breathed out in a hushed whisper. Dream nodded, his own cheeks blushing at the memory, the sight was going to haunt him. And judging by Sapnaps disheveled state and the even brighter flush coating the texans olive skin, the same could be said for him.

The pair wandered downstairs not long after that but not before Dream had the chance to tug the other off hastily up against his bedroom door. The short but sweet encounter with George being more than enough to fluster the unexpecting man. 

“It was one thrust Sap.” Dream laughed quietly, breathing against the shorter man's ear. Sapnap hit his head against the door, huffing as he let the other tease him, there was no point in trying to fight it. “It wasn’t just ‘one thrust’ and you know it Dream.” He groaned, eyes clenching as he felt the blonds hand on him, the pressure building. “You saw it too.”

Dream chuckled, he had.

**Author's Note:**

> Any thoughts are genuinely appreciated!  
> I'm trying my gosh darn hardest here but maybe I'm not doing everything quite right, let me know!
> 
> Also if you read all this, thank you! :))


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